Crab nebula

Credit: NASA/SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARY

Caption: Crab nebula. Coloured Chandra X-ray telescope image of the Crab nebula (M1) supernova remnant. At the centre of the innermost ring is a pulsar, a spinning neutron star emitting pulses of radiation 30 times a second. The bright rings are composed of high-energy particles spiralling along magnetic field lines around the pulsar. Jets are escaping from the pulsar perpendicular to the plane of the rings. The Crab nebula is the remains of a star which exploded in 1054 AD, an event witnessed by Chinese astronomers. It lies around 6000 light years away in the constellation Taurus.

Release details: Model release not required. Property release not required.

Keywords: astronomical, astronomy, astrophysics, chandra image, cosmology, crab nebula, m1, neutron, pulsar, science, snr, space, star, star death, stars, stellar, supernova remnant, universe, x-ray astronomy, xray

Licence fees: A licence fee will be charged for any media (low or high resolution) used in your project.