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The Crab Nebula (catalogue designations M1, NGC 1952, Taurus A) is a supernova remnant and pulsar wind nebula in the constellation of Taurus. The common name comes from a drawing that somewhat resembled a crab with arms produced by William Parsons, 3rd Earl of Rosse , in 1842 or 1843 using a 36-inch (91 cm) telescope . [ 6 ]
The Crab Nebula, and the Crab Pulsar within it, is an intense space X-ray source. It is used as a standard candle in the calibration procedure of X-ray instruments in space. However, because of the Crab Nebula's variable intensity at different X-ray energies, conversion of the Crab to another units depends on the X-ray energy range of interest.
The first radio pulsar "CP 1919" (now known as PSR B1919+21), with a pulse period of 1.337 seconds and a pulse width of 0.04-second, was discovered in 1967. [6] The first binary pulsar, PSR 1913+16, whose orbit is decaying due to the emission of gravitational radiation at the exact rate predicted by general relativity.
Thomas Gold has shown that the pulsar's spin-down power is sufficient to power the Crab Nebula. A subsequent study by them, including William D. Brundage, also found that the NP 0532 source is located at the Crab Nebula. [20] A radio source was also reported coincident with the Crab Nebula in late 1968 by L. I. Matveenko in Soviet Astronomy. [21]
Pulsar wind nebulae evolve through various phases. [2] [5] New pulsar wind nebulae appear soon after a pulsar's creation, and typically sit inside a supernova remnant, for example the Crab Nebula, [6] or the nebula within the large Vela Supernova Remnant. [7]
The Crab Nebula is a pulsar wind nebula associated with the 1054 supernova.It is located about 6,500 light-years from the Earth. [1]A near-Earth supernova is an explosion resulting from the death of a star that occurs close enough to the Earth (roughly less than 10 to 300 parsecs [30 to 1000 light-years] away [2]) to have noticeable effects on Earth's biosphere.
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The Crab Nebula is a remnant of an exploded star. This is the Crab Nebula in various energy bands, including a hard X-ray image from the HEFT data taken during its 2005 observation run. Each image is 6' wide. The guest star reported by Chinese astronomers in 1054 is identified as SN 1054. The highlighted passages refer to the supernova.