The best-known supernova remnant is undoubtedly the Crab Nebula. In the year 1054 AD, Chinese astronomers saw a star explode. This explosion was so bright that the remnant of the star was visible to the naked eye during the middle of the day for 23 days. The remainder is now eleven light-years wide and can only be observed with good binoculars or a telescope.
The Crab Nebula is 6,500 light years away from Earth. In the center of the nebula, a neutron star rotates on its axis thirty times (!!) every second. This star is the same size as Phobos – one of the moons of Mars – and has a radius of approximately ten kilometers. At the same time, the neutron star is heavier than our sun. A grain of neutrons cannot be lifted and weighs more than a group of elephants together. This neutron star affects the gas in the environment. You can see this clearly in the space photo of the week – taken by the Hubble Space Telescope. Just look at the whirlwind around the center.
This photo of the Crab Nebula is less colorful and chaotic than other photos of the area, such as this special snapshot from 2017. This is because only one filter was used. This makes more small details visible that are overshadowed in the colorful image.
What is a neutron star?
When massive stars reach the end of their lives, they explode. What is left behind is a collapsed core and that is what we call a neutron star. Neutron stars are the smallest stars there are, but they are extremely dense. In addition, neutron stars are perfect spheres: mountains on these stars are less than one millimeter high.
In 2016, the Hubble telescope took this beautiful photo of the center of the Crab Nebula. In the heart you see the neutron star. This star produces jets that are regularly thrown toward Earth. The star then pulsates at certain wavelengths and looks like a cosmic lighthouse.
In recent decades, space telescopes and satellites have taken beautiful pictures of nebulae, galaxies, stellar nurseries and planets. Every weekend we take an impressive space photo from the archive. Enjoy all the photos? View them on this page.
2023-10-01 14:54:45
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