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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 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]
It spins at a rate of 30 times per second, spewing energy beams and taking on a decidedly pulsating appearance.
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.
A pulsar wind nebula (PWN, plural PWNe), sometimes called a plerion (derived from the Greek "πλήρης", pleres, meaning "full"), [1] is a type of nebula sometimes found inside the shell of a supernova remnant (SNR), powered by winds generated by a central pulsar.
Images featured on the Astronomy Picture of the Day (APOD) web site may be copyrighted. The National Space Science Data Center (NSSDC) site has been known to host copyrighted content. Its photo gallery FAQ states that all of the images in the photo gallery are in the public domain "Unless otherwise noted."
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