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The Crab Nebula is the remnant of an explosion of a star called a supernova that occurred on July 4, 1054 c.e. This event was recorded by Chinese astronomers and perhaps Native Americans in New Mexico. It can now be seen at the lower horn on the constellation Taurus and it is 6,300 light years away and is known to the initiated as M1. |
Supernovae occur when a massive star ends its life in an amazing blaze of glory. For a few days a supernova emits as much energy as a whole galaxy. When it's all over, a large fraction of the star is blown into space as a supernova remnant. A typical supernova remnant is at most few light-years across.
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At the center of the Crab is a pulsar, the neutron star that remains from the original star. Neutron stars are fantastic objects -- just a few kilometers in diameter but with the mass of the Sun and very rapidly rotating (the Crab pulsar rotates 30 times per second, some pulsars ten times faster). This entire nebula is about 11 light- years wide or 65 trillion miles. It has gravitational forces strong enough to compress us into the tiniest of dots and massive amounts of radiation that would fry us long before that could happen. |
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And yet, it is beautiful. For me, it is a face of God