From National Geographic about this video:
New Video: Crab Nebula Comes Alive
Posted by Andrew Fazekas in StarStruck on August 2, 2013
An iconic colorful cloud of gas and dust – the remains of an ancient violent cosmic event- is finally revealing its dynamic nature thanks to a newly released video more than a decade in the making.
A favorite target for backyard telescope users for generations, the Crab Nebula, sitting some 6,500 light years from Earth, in the constellation Taurus the bull, is the remnants of a star’s supernova explosion first seen by humans back in the year 1054. We know this because records kept by Chinese and Japanese astronomers of the time describe a new bright star shining in the sky that lasted for only a few weeks.
Despite the resulting six-light-year-wide space cloud expanding at a rate of 1,500 kilometers (932 miles) per second, changes in its shape have been difficult to see due to its relative small angular size in our sky and its large distance away.
But now, astronomer Adam Block has managed to capture the growth of the Crab nebula that has occurred between 1999 and 2012 through beautiful images taken by two large professional observatories – and assembled them into the compelling video above.
Tip of the hat to Phil Plait for this great find.
The animation is truly awe-inspiring, and a great cosmic way to end the week.
Crab Nebula – A composite view of an iconic supernova remnant in our Milky Way galaxy: here.
Cosmic portraits made from stunning Hubble space telescope images: here.
Related articles
- The coolest video of an expanding supernova you’ll see today (planetary.org)
- Watch the Crab Nebula Expand Over a 13 Year Period (science.slashdot.org)
- World Photography Day: Outer space phenomena that look like Modern Art (dnaindia.com)
- The Big Bang and Supernovas (smoodock45.wordpress.com)
- Cognition Obscura (I) (rsbakker.wordpress.com)
- Watch the Crab Nebula Expand at 1500 Kilometers per Second (geekosystem.com)
- Crab Nebula: Noble Gas Molecule Found in Crab Nebula, A First in Space, Researchers Say (theepochtimes.com)
