Astronomy Picture of the Day [1]Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation written by a professional astronomer. 2021 December 24 [2]See Explanation. Clicking on the picture will download the highest resolution version available. M1: The Crab Nebula Image Credit & [3]Copyright: [4]Michael Sherick Explanation: The Crab Nebula is cataloged as M1, the first object on [5]Charles Messier's famous 18th century list of things which are not comets. In fact, [6]the Crab is now known to be a [7]supernova remnant, debris from the death explosion of a massive star, [8]witnessed by astronomers in the year 1054. [9]This sharp, ground-based telescopic view combines broadband color data with narrowband data that tracks emission from ionized sulfur, hydrogen, and oxygen atoms to explore the tangled filaments within the still [10]expanding cloud. One of the most exotic objects known to modern astronomers, [11]the Crab Pulsar, a neutron star spinning 30 times a second, is visible as a bright spot near the nebula's center. [12]Like a cosmic dynamo, this collapsed remnant of the stellar core powers the Crab's emission across the electromagnetic spectrum. Spanning about 12 light-years, the Crab Nebula is a mere 6,500 light-years away in the [13]constellation Taurus. Tomorrow's picture: A Christmas Comet __________________________________________________________________ [14]< | [15]Archive | [16]Submissions | [17]Index | [18]Search | [19]Calendar | [20]RSS | [21]Education | [22]About APOD | [23]Discuss | [24]> __________________________________________________________________ Authors & editors: [25]Robert Nemiroff ([26]MTU) & [27]Jerry Bonnell ([28]UMCP) NASA Official: Phillip Newman [29]Specific rights apply. [30]NASA Web Privacy Policy and Important Notices A service of: [31]ASD at [32]NASA / [33]GSFC & [34]Michigan Tech. U. References 1. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/archivepix.html 2. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/2112/Sherick_M1_SHOLRGB_12-5-21a.jpg 3. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/lib/about_apod.html#srapply 4. https://www.astrobin.com/users/sagrada737/ 5. https://www.nasa.gov/content/explore-the-night-sky-hubble-s-messier-catalog-bio 6. http://messier.seds.org/more/m001_rosse.html 7. https://chandra.harvard.edu/xray_sources/supernovas.html 8. http://messier.seds.org/more/m001_sn.html 9. https://www.astrobin.com/sy8bt5/ 10. http://vimeo.com/71117055 11. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap050326.html 12. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap180317.html 13. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap211022.html 14. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap211223.html 15. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/archivepix.html 16. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/lib/apsubmit2015.html 17. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/lib/aptree.html 18. https://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/cgi-bin/apod/apod_search 19. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/calendar/allyears.html 20. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod.rss 21. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/lib/edlinks.html 22. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/lib/about_apod.html 23. http://asterisk.apod.com/discuss_apod.php?date=211224 24. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap211225.html 25. http://www.phy.mtu.edu/faculty/Nemiroff.html 26. http://www.phy.mtu.edu/ 27. https://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/htmltest/jbonnell/www/bonnell.html 28. http://www.astro.umd.edu/ 29. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/lib/about_apod.html#srapply 30. https://www.nasa.gov/about/highlights/HP_Privacy.html 31. https://astrophysics.gsfc.nasa.gov/ 32. https://www.nasa.gov/ 33. https://www.nasa.gov/centers/goddard/ 34. http://www.mtu.edu/