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Crab Nebula and Pulsar

As featured in Astronomy Picture of the Day for 24/8/25.

The Crab Nebula as seen in visible light from the Hubble Space Telescope (purple,) X-ray light as imaged by the Chandra X-ray observatory (blue) and infra-red from the Spitzer Space Telescope (red.) The Crab Pulsar is the bright spot in the swirl’s centre:-

The Pulsar in the Crab Nebula

This is an arresting image from Astronomy Picture of the Day for 21/8/22. It’s of the area surrounding the Crab Pulsar, a spinning neutron star at the centre of the picture and is the remanants of a supernova witnessed on Earth in 1054.

The image combines visible light from the Hubble Space Telescope, X-ray light from the Chandra X-Ray Observatory and infra-red light from the Spitzer Space Telescope.

The neutron star spins 30 times a second.

Pulsar in Crab Nebula

Pinwheel in Space

From Astronomy Picture of the Day for 6/11/19.

The Pinwheel Galaxy

The Pinwheel Galaxy is more properly designated M101.

Here it is seen in an amalgamation of colour-coded photos taken in X-ray (purple,) ultra-violet (blue,) visible light (yellow) and infra-red (red) from the Chandra X-ray Observatory, the Galaxy Evolution Explorer, the Hubble Space Telescope and the Spitzer Space Telescope respectively.

Given it looks like a spinning Catherine wheel firework they should have posted this a day earlier.

Then again, they’re USian, they probably wouldn’t know the significance of the 5<sup<th November in the UK.

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