APOD: M1: The Incredible Expanding Crab (2023 Nov 15)

[APOD Robot]

M1: The Incredible Expanding Crab

Explanation: Cataloged as M1, the Crab Nebula is the first on Charles Messier's famous list</a> of things which are not comets. In fact, the Crab Nebula is now known to be a supernova remnant, an expanding cloud of debris from the death explosion of a massive star. The violent birth of the Crab was witnessed by astronomers in the year 1054. Roughly 10 light-years across, the nebula is still expanding at a rate of about 1,500 kilometers per second. You can see the expansion by comparing these sharp images from the Hubble Space Telescope and James Webb Space Telescope. The Crab's dynamic, fragmented filaments were captured in visible light by Hubble in 2005 and Webb in infrared light in 2023. This cosmic crustacean lies about 6,500 light-years away in the constellation Taurus.

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[SugarMan]

I noticed that the APOD website posted the same photo twice. The photo is very beautiful and impressive, but I wonder why it was posted twice on different dates. Maybe it was a mistake or a glitch in the system. Or maybe the editors liked it so much that they wanted to share it again.
https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap231109.html

[Lasse H]

The idea this time was, I guess, to show the difference in size by giving us the chance to compare it to the older photo.

[AVAO]

...Crab Nebula (one decade time-lapse movie:
https://www.astrobin.com/327338/0/

Click to view full size image

Observation sequences of M1, showing the expansion of shock waves emanating from the Pulsar interacting with the surrounding nebula. Chandra X-Rays (left), Hubble Visible light (right). (Credit: NASA, JPL-Caltech)

Click to view full size image

https://hubblesite.org/contents/media/v ... Video.html
Credit:NASA/ESA


http://cosmicneighbors.net/crab.htm Copyright: Mike Keith

"To the upper right of the nebula is a star in motion. This is the magnitude-11.5 star TYC 1309-1640-1 and it has a high proper motion of about 1/4 arcseconds per year. The image scale here is about 1 arcsecond per pixel, so from 1955 to 2014 it moves (2014-1955)/4 = 15 arcseconds = 15 pixels."

[Christian G.]

...Crab Nebula (one decade time-lapse movie:
https://www.astrobin.com/327338/0/

Click to view full size image

Observation sequences of M1, showing the expansion of shock waves emanating from the Pulsar interacting with the surrounding nebula. Chandra X-Rays (left), Hubble Visible light (right). (Credit: NASA, JPL-Caltech)

Click to view full size image

https://hubblesite.org/contents/media/v ... Video.html
Credit:NASA/ESA


http://cosmicneighbors.net/crab.htm Copyright: Mike Keith

"To the upper right of the nebula is a star in motion. This is the magnitude-11.5 star TYC 1309-1640-1 and it has a high proper motion of about 1/4 arcseconds per year. The image scale here is about 1 arcsecond per pixel, so from 1955 to 2014 it moves (2014-1955)/4 = 15 arcseconds = 15 pixels."

Fascinating supplement to this APOD!

[hankbernath@msn.com]

the two shots are different but not both in IR or visible, so it is not really comparable since IR will show features not visible to visible light. How about both in visible or both in IR in the same time span?

[Chris Peterson]

the two shots are different but not both in IR or visible, so it is not really comparable since IR will show features not visible to visible light. How about both in visible or both in IR in the same time span?

We've seen many such comparisons. But this one involves two very high resolution imagers that simply don't operate in the same part of the spectrum.

[Pastorian]

...
http://cosmicneighbors.net/crab.htm Copyright: Mike Keith

"To the upper right of the nebula is a star in motion. This is the magnitude-11.5 star TYC 1309-1640-1 and it has a high proper motion of about 1/4 arcseconds per year. The image scale here is about 1 arcsecond per pixel, so from 1955 to 2014 it moves (2014-1955)/4 = 15 arcseconds = 15 pixels."

"G 100-20 -- a high proper-motion star near M1"
https://cs.astronomy.com/asy/m/nebulae/490961.aspx

G 100-20 -- a high proper-motion star near M1

"While the evolving nebula is the main actor here, if you look carefully you will find a bonus in the image. On the upper left side, there is a star clearly moving. It is G 100-20, an high proper motion (0.24″/year) star. From its paralax, we find it to be at 58 light years from us."
https://www.virtualtelescope.eu/2021/02 ... -sequence/

[orin stepanek]

Don't go too close to the Crab; very dangerous to do so!

The Hyades!