Page 1 of 1
APOD: M1: The Crab Nebula from Hubble (2011 Dec 25)
Posted: Sun Dec 25, 2011 5:05 am
by APOD Robot
M1: The Crab Nebula from Hubble
Explanation: This is the mess that is left when a star explodes. The
Crab Nebula, the result of a
supernova seen in
1054 AD, is filled with
mysterious filaments. The
filaments are not only tremendously complex, but appear to have
less mass than expelled in the original supernova and a
higher speed than expected from a free explosion. The
above image, taken by the
Hubble Space Telescope, is presented in three colors chosen for scientific interest. The
Crab Nebula spans about 10
light-years. In
the nebula's very center lies a
pulsar: a
neutron star as massive as the
Sun but with only the size of a
small town. The
Crab Pulsar rotates about 30 times each second.
[/b]
Re: APOD: M1: The Crab Nebula from Hubble (2011 Dec 25)
Posted: Sun Dec 25, 2011 5:29 am
by TNT
Did the Robot's wires get crossed? Because it didn't finish the URL.
Re: APOD: M1: The Crab Nebula from Hubble (2011 Dec 25)
Posted: Sun Dec 25, 2011 5:34 am
by Beyond
Probably got distracted by the sound of jingling bells and a few HO HO HO's.
((or some potent egg-nog))
Re: APOD: M1: The Crab Nebula from Hubble (2011 Dec 25)
Posted: Sun Dec 25, 2011 6:06 am
by islader2
Because the Crab Nebula was visible in the daytime, I am certain that the native Americans in Chaco Canyon saw it and recorded it. Because the Crab Nebula is designated M1, I had to trek into Chaco Canyon to see its depiction there. Astronomy is my hobby. Nice campground==can be rented on an 800 number.
Re: APOD: M1: The Crab Nebula from Hubble (2011 Dec 25)
Posted: Sun Dec 25, 2011 7:24 am
by Boomer12k
This is your brain....This is your brain after a Supernova!
Merry Xmas!
:----{===} *
Re: APOD: M1: The Crab Nebula from Hubble (2011 Dec 25)
Posted: Sun Dec 25, 2011 7:55 am
by Sinan İpek
Can we see the pulsar in this picture?
Re: APOD: M1: The Crab Nebula from Hubble (2011 Dec 25)
Posted: Sun Dec 25, 2011 8:20 am
by Ann
Sinan İpek wrote:Can we see the pulsar in this picture?
I'm not sure myself. I can see a very small pair of stars pretty much in the middle of the picture, in an opening in the horizontal dust lane that more or less bisects the inner blue "bubble" of the Crab Nebula.
In the picture I'm posting here, we don't see much of the thick dust lanes of the Crab Nebula. Instead we see the bluish "interior" of the Crab Nebula. You can see a pair of stars inside a white box. In the series of black and white images at right, you can see the pulsar "switch on and off". The pulsar, as you can see, is the lower one of the pair of stars.
Ann
Re: APOD: M1: The Crab Nebula from Hubble (2011 Dec 25)
Posted: Sun Dec 25, 2011 8:41 am
by bystander
Re: APOD: M1: The Crab Nebula from Hubble (2011 Dec 25)
Posted: Sun Dec 25, 2011 8:59 am
by bystander
TNT wrote:Did the Robot's wires get crossed? Because it didn't finish the URL.
Fixed here, email sent to editors.
Re: APOD: M1: The Crab Nebula from Hubble (2011 Dec 25)
Posted: Sun Dec 25, 2011 11:18 am
by Byork
The alignment of magnetic poles on a neutron star must be very different compared to other stellar bodies. Due to the intense and concentrated magnetic flux on a neutron star the magnetic poles probably overlap one another. This would imply that one pole completely surrounds the other pole. For example, on any particular neutron star the south pole may completely surround the north pole, or the north pole may completely surround the south pole. Which pole overlaps the other pole would not make much of a difference on a body like a neutron star - the preferential molecular attraction to a particular polar flux would be negated on a neutron star due to the overall high gravitational attraction. However, the physical properties of any one kind of polar alignment would deternine the influence of magnetic flux on charged particles in the region. Thus, it may be correct to visualize a jet stream of charged particles issuing from one region of neutron star where the north and south polar fluxes interact simultaneously to compress and accelerate charged particles into a jet stream.
Re: APOD: M1: The Crab Nebula from Hubble (2011 Dec 25)
Posted: Sun Dec 25, 2011 12:34 pm
by Boomer12k
Byork wrote:The alignment of magnetic poles on a neutron star must be very different compared to other stellar bodies. Due to the intense and concentrated magnetic flux on a neutron star the magnetic poles probably overlap one another. This would imply that one pole completely surrounds the other pole. For example, on any particular neutron star the south pole may completely surround the north pole, or the north pole may completely surround the south pole. Which pole overlaps the other pole would not make much of a difference on a body like a neutron star - the preferential molecular attraction to a particular polar flux would be negated on a neutron star due to the overall high gravitational attraction. However, the physical properties of any one kind of polar alignment would deternine the influence of magnetic flux on charged particles in the region. Thus, it may be correct to visualize a jet stream of charged particles issuing from one region of neutron star where the north and south polar fluxes interact simultaneously to compress and accelerate charged particles into a jet stream.
This why I use a FLUX CAPACITOR....
:----[====] *
Re: APOD: M1: The Crab Nebula from Hubble (2011 Dec 25)
Posted: Sun Dec 25, 2011 1:47 pm
by orin stepanek
The Crab Nebula; very beautiful!
Re: APOD: M1: The Crab Nebula from Hubble (2011 Dec 25)
Posted: Sun Dec 25, 2011 3:05 pm
by Beyond
Ann wrote:Sinan İpek wrote:Can we see the pulsar in this picture?
I'm not sure myself. I can see a very small pair of stars pretty much in the middle of the picture, in an opening in the horizontal dust lane that more or less bisects the inner blue "bubble" of the Crab Nebula.
In the picture I'm posting here, we don't see much of the thick dust lanes of the Crab Nebula. Instead we see the bluish "interior" of the Crab Nebula. You can see a pair of stars inside a white box. In the series of black and white images at right, you can see the pulsar "switch on and off". The pulsar, as you can see, is the lower one of the pair of stars.
Ann
That must have been taken with a high speed camera. It's said that the pulsar rotates at 30 times a second.
On another note.... Tis
not the season to be 'crabby', fla-la-la-la-la, fla-la-la-la.
![Mr. Green :mrgreen:](./images/smilies/icon_mrgreen.gif)
Re: APOD: M1: The Crab Nebula from Hubble (2011 Dec 25)
Posted: Mon Dec 26, 2011 2:49 am
by NoelC
Ann wrote:Sinan İpek wrote:Can we see the pulsar in this picture?
In the picture I'm posting here, we don't see much of the thick dust lanes of the Crab Nebula. Instead we see the bluish "interior" of the Crab Nebula. You can see a pair of stars inside a white box. In the series of black and white images at right, you can see the pulsar "switch on and off". The pulsar, as you can see, is the lower one of the pair of stars.
Ann
This animated overlay image might help with location of where the pulsar is in the big Hubble shot...
You may have to click it to animate it.
![CrabNebulaPulsarPosition.gif (218.48 KiB) Viewed 3983 times The pulsar is the lower right member of the pair in the little box](./download/file.php?id=5752&t=1&sid=066506ef107912e88ef2e19ca8157c62)
- The pulsar is the lower right member of the pair in the little box
-Noel
Re: APOD: M1: The Crab Nebula from Hubble (2011 Dec 25)
Posted: Mon Dec 26, 2011 4:22 am
by biddie67
very effective, NoelC ~~ thanks !!
Re: APOD: M1: The Crab Nebula from Hubble (2011 Dec 25)
Posted: Sat Aug 10, 2013 3:41 pm
by neufer
Re: APOD: M1: The Crab Nebula from Hubble (2011 Dec 25)
Posted: Sat Aug 10, 2013 5:15 pm
by Beyond
Thanks neufer
![Exclamation :!:](./images/smilies/icon_exclaim.gif)
Now i know part of the reason people are becoming more crabbier now-a-days.
![Wink :wink:](./images/smilies/icon_wink.gif)
Re: APOD: M1: The Crab Nebula from Hubble (2011 Dec 25)
Posted: Sat Aug 10, 2013 5:49 pm
by mjimih
what is the white fog/glow in the center?
Re: APOD: M1: The Crab Nebula from Hubble (2011 Dec 25)
Posted: Sat Aug 10, 2013 6:39 pm
by Ann
mjimih wrote:what is the white fog/glow in the center?
That is so called synchroton radiation, and it is caused by electrons moving through a very strong magnetic field. The magnetic field here is incredibly strong.
But you should ask someone else to give you more details.
Ann
Re: APOD: M1: The Crab Nebula from Hubble (2011 Dec 25)
Posted: Sat Aug 10, 2013 9:19 pm
by neufer
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crab_Nebula#Origins_and_history_of_observation wrote:
[img3="
The Earl of Rosse observed the Crab nebula at Birr Castle in 1844 using a 36-inch telescope, and referred to the object as the "Crab Nebula" because a drawing he made of it looked like a crab (he observed it again later, in 1848, using a 72-telescope and could not confirm the supposed resemblance, but the name stuck nevertheless)."]
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/c ... 1rosse.jpg[/img3]
<<In 1757, Alexis Clairaut reexamined the calculations of Edmund Halley and predicted the return of Halley's Comet in late 1758. The exact time of the comet's return required the consideration of perturbations to its orbit caused by planets in the Solar System such as Jupiter, which Clairaut and his two colleagues Jérôme Lalande and Nicole-Reine Lepaute carried out more precisely than Halley, finding that the comet should appear in the constellation of Taurus. It is in searching in vain for the comet that Charles Messier found the Crab nebula, which he at first thought to be Halley's comet. After some observation, noticing that the object that he was observing was not moving across the sky, Messier concluded that the object was not a comet. Messier then realised the usefulness of compiling a catalogue of celestial objects of a cloudy nature, but fixed in the sky, to avoid incorrectly cataloging them as comets. Messier catalogued [the Crab nebula] as the first entry in his catalogue of comet-like objects
Changes in the cloud, suggesting its small extent, were discovered by Carl Lampland in 1921. That same year, John Charles Duncan demonstrated that the remnant is expanding, while Knut Lundmark noted its proximity to the guest star of 1054, but did not mention the comments of his two colleagues. In 1928, Edwin Hubble proposed associating the cloud to the star of 1054, an idea which remained confidential until the nature of supernovae was understood, and it was Nicholas Mayall who indicated that the star of 1054 was undoubtedly the supernova whose explosion produced the Crab Nebula. The search for historical supernovae started at that moment: seven other historical sightings have been found by comparing modern observations of supernova remnants with astronomical documents of past centuries. Given its great distance, the daytime "guest star" observed by the Chinese could only have been a supernova—a massive, exploding star, having exhausted its supply of energy from nuclear fusion and collapsed in on itself. Recent analysis of historical records have found that the supernova that created the Crab Nebula probably appeared in April or early May, rising to its maximum brightness of between apparent magnitude −7 and −4.5 (brighter than everything in the night sky except the Moon) by July. The supernova was visible to the naked eye for about two years after its first observation. Thanks to the recorded observations of Far Eastern and Middle Eastern astronomers of 1054, Crab Nebula became the first astronomical object recognized as being connected to a supernova explosion.
In the 1960s, because of the prediction and discovery of pulsars, the Crab nebula again became a major centre of interest. It was then that Franco Pacini predicted the existence of a neutron star for the first time, which would explain the brightness of the cloud. This neutron star was observed shortly afterwards in 1968, a shining confirmation of the theory of the formation of these objects at the time of certain supernovae. The discovery of the Crab pulsar, and the knowledge of its exact age (almost to the day) allows for the verification of basic physical properties of these objects, such as characteristic age and spin-down luminosity, the orders of magnitude involved (notably the strength of the magnetic field), along with various aspects related to the dynamics of the remnant. The particular role of this supernova to the scientific understanding of supernova remnants was crucial, as no other historical supernova created a pulsar whose precise age we can know for certain. The only possible exception to this rule would be SN 1181 whose supposed remnant, 3C58, is home to a pulsar, but its identification using Chinese observations from 1181 is sometimes contested.>>