AKA: Crab Nebula, NGC 1952, Taurus A, Sharpless 244
Class: Supernova Remnant
Distance: 6.15e+16 km (6500 ly)
Discovered: 1731
by John Bevis. Recognized as a supernova remnant in the 20th century.
Named after: The Earl of Rosse made a drawing in 1848 that looked like a crab.
Remnant of supernova SN 1054, observed by Arab, Chinese and Japanese astronomers. The supernova was daytime-visible and the brightest object after the Moon. It was naked-eye visible for about 2 years.
The most studied astronomical object outside the Solar System - hugely important because its age is known almost to the day.
Diameter 11 ly, expanding at 1,500 km/s.
Located in the Perseus Arm of the Milky Way.
The pulsar at the center of the nebula is a neutron star 30 km across, spinning at 30x per second, emitting pulses of radiation from radio waves to gamma rays.
The filaments are remnants of the star's atmosphere, and consist largely of ionised helium and hydrogen, along with some other heavier elements.