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File:Crab Nebula NGC 1952 (composite from Chandra, Hubble and Spitzer).jpg

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Description

A star's spectacular death in the constellation Taurus was observed on Earth as the supernova of 1054 A.D. Now, almost a thousand years later, a super dense object — called a neutron star — left behind by the explosion is seen spewing out a blizzard of high-energy particles into the expanding debris field known as the Crab Nebula. X-ray data from Chandra provide significant clues to the workings of this mighty cosmic "generator," which is producing energy at the rate of 100,000 suns.

This composite image uses data from three of NASA's Great Observatories. The Chandra X-ray image is shown in blue, the Hubble Space Telescope optical image is in red and yellow, and the Spitzer Space Telescope's infrared image is in purple. The X-ray image is smaller than the others because extremely energetic electrons emitting X-rays radiate away their energy more quickly than the lower-energy electrons emitting optical and infrared light. Along with many other telescopes, Chandra has repeatedly observed the Crab Nebula over the course of the mission's lifetime. The Crab Nebula is one of the most studied objects in the sky, truly making it a cosmic icon.
Date (released)
Source http://chandra.harvard.edu/photo/2009/crab/ (image link); see also http://www.spitzer.caltech.edu/images/2857-sig09-009-NASA-s-Great-Observatories-View-of-the-Crab-Nebula
Author X-ray: NASA/CXC/SAO/F.Seward; Optical: NASA/ESA/ASU/J.Hester & A.Loll; Infrared: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Univ. Minn./R.Gehrz

Licensing

Public domain
This file is in the public domain because it was created by NASA and ESA. NASA Hubble material (and ESA Hubble material prior to 2009) is copyright-free and may be freely used as in the public domain without fee, on the condition that only NASA, STScI, and/or ESA is credited as the source of the material. This license does not apply if ESA material created after 2008 or source material from other organizations is in use.

The material was created for NASA by Space Telescope Science Institute under Contract NAS5-26555, or for ESA by the Hubble European Space Agency Information Centre. Copyright statement at hubblesite.org or 2008 copyright statement at spacetelescope.org.

For material created by the European Space Agency on the spacetelescope.org site since 2009, use the {{ESA-Hubble}} tag.


Public domain This file is in the public domain in the United States because it was solely created by NASA. NASA copyright policy states that "NASA material is not protected by copyright unless noted". (See Template:PD-USGov, NASA copyright policy page or JPL Image Use Policy.)
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23 November 2009

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Date/TimeThumbnailDimensionsUserComment
current01:07, 6 August 2017Thumbnail for version as of 01:07, 6 August 20172,780 × 2,648 (4.34 MB)HuntsterLess compressed version from Chandra website.
07:23, 3 August 2010Thumbnail for version as of 07:23, 3 August 20102,780 × 2,648 (1.12 MB)Tryphon{{Information |Description=A star's spectacular death in the constellation en:Taurus was observed on Earth as the en:supernova of 1054 A.D. Now, almost a thousand years later, a super dense object — called a en:neutron star — left be

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