Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/R. Gehrz (University of Minnesota)

Crab Nebula Supernova Remnant (IRAC Image)

The Crab Nebula is the shattered remnant of a massive star that ended its life in a massive supernova explosion. Nearly a thousand years old, the supernova was noted in the constellation of Taurus by Chinese astronomers in the year 1054 AD.

This view of the supernova remnant obtained by the Spitzer Space Telescope shows the infrared view of this complex object. The blue-white region traces the cloud of energetic electrons trapped within the star's magnetic field, emitting so-called "synchrotron" radiation. The red features follow the well-known filamentary structures that permeate this nebula. Though they are known to contain hot gasses, their exact nature is still a mystery that astronomers are examining.

The energetic cloud of electrons are driven by a rapidly rotating neutron star, or pulsar, at its core. The nebula is about 6,500 light-years away from the Earth, and is 5 light-years across.

This false-color image presents images from Spitzer's Infrared Array Camera (IRAC) at 3.6 (blue), 4.5 (green), and 8.0 (red) microns.

About the Object	Object Name: Crab Nebula (M1, NGC 1952) Object Type: Supernova Remnant Position (J2000): RA: 05:34:31.97 Dec: 22:00:52.1 Distance: 6300 ly/1930 pc Magnitude: 8.4 Constellation: Taurus
About the Data	Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/R. Gehrz (University of Minnesota) Instrument: IRAC Wavelength: 3.6 (blue), 4.5 (green), 8.0 (red) microns Field of View: 8.8 arcmin Orientation: North is up Release Date: 01 June 2005

The Spitzer Space Telescope is a NASA mission managed by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory. This website is maintained by the Spitzer Science Center, located on the campus of the California Institute of Technology and part of NASA's Infrared Processing and Analysis Center.