Five Observatories, One Crab Nebula: A Supernova Remnant Across the Spectrum

The Crab Nebula is the remains of a supernova. To produce a highly detailed image of it, astronomers combined data from telescopes covering nearly the whole electromagnetic spectrum, from radio waves to X-rays. This NASA video starts with that composite picture and then takes it apart, one kind of light at a time.

Five telescopes

The composite draws on:

• the Karl G. Jansky Very Large Array (VLA), for radio waves;
• the Spitzer Space Telescope, for infrared;
• the Hubble Space Telescope, for visible light;
• the XMM-Newton Observatory;
• the Chandra X-ray Observatory, for X-rays.

What each view shows

At the center of the nebula is a rapidly rotating neutron star.

• Radio (red). A fierce "wind" of charged particles from the neutron star has energized the nebula, making it give off radio waves.
• Infrared (yellow). The glow of dust particles that absorb ultraviolet and visible light.
• Visible (green). Hubble's sharp view of the hot filaments that run all through the nebula.
• Ultraviolet (blue) and X-ray (purple). The effect of an energetic cloud of electrons driven by the spinning neutron star.

Sources

• NASA Image and Video Library: "Observatories Combine to Crack Open the Crab Nebula," NASA Goddard Space Flight Center.