Hubble image archive
Crab Nebula: A Dead Star Creates Celestial Havoc
This composite image of the Crab Nebula uses data from three of NASA's Great Observatories. The Chandra X-ray image is shown in light blue, the Hubble Space Telescope optical images are in green and dark blue, and the Spitzer Space Telescope's infrared image is in red. The size o...
- Date
- Jan 1, 2005
- Mission
- Hubble Space Telescope
- Archive ID
- hubblesite-images-2005-37-1824-image
This composite image of the Crab Nebula uses data from three of NASA's Great Observatories. The Chandra X-ray image is shown in light blue, the Hubble Space Telescope optical images are in green and dark blue, and the Spitzer Space Telescope's infrared image is in red. The size of the X-ray image is smaller than the others because the outwardly streaming higher-energy electrons emitting X-ray light radiate away their energy more quickly than the lower-energy electrons emitting optical and infrared light. The neutron star, which has the mass equivalent to the sun crammed into a rapidly spinning ball of neutrons twelve miles across, is the bright white dot in the center of the image.
Credits
NASA, ESA, CXC, JPL-Caltech, J. Hester and A. Loll (Arizona State Univ.), R. Gehrz (Univ. Minn.), and STScIImage Details
| About The Object | |
|---|---|
| Object Name | Crab Nebula, NGC 1952 |
| Object Description | Supernova Remnant |
| R.A. Position | 05h 34m 32.0s |
| Dec. Position | 22° 0' 51.99" |
| Constellation | Taurus |
| Distance | The distance to NGC 1952 is 6500 light-years (2.0 kpc). |
| Dimensions | The image is 6 arcminutes along the bottom (12 light-years or 3.7 pc). |
| About The Data | |
| Data Description | The Hubble data was created from HST proposal : J. Hester and A. Loll (Arizona State University), W. Blair and R. Sankrit (Johns Hopkins University), and P.Scowen (Arizona State University). D. de Martin (www.skyfactory.org, Venice, Italy) also helped in the creation of this image. |
| Instrument | HST, CXO, and SST |
| About The Image | |
| Color Info | Light blue (CXO): X-ray Dark blue (HST): Optical Green (HST): Optical Red (SST): Infrared |
More Images From This Period
Downloads
Source
Image and source material are credited to the official mission archive linked below.
View on NASA.gov