Celestial hemisphere:  Northern  ·  Constellation: Taurus (Tau)  ·  Contains:  123 Tau)  ·  M 1  ·  NGC 1952  ·  The star 121 Tau  ·  The star Tianguan (ζ Tau
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Sharpless 2 243 and 244 (Crab Nebula) in narrowband, David Elmore
Sharpless 2 243 and 244 (Crab Nebula) in narrowband
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Sharpless 2 243 and 244 (Crab Nebula) in narrowband

Getting plate-solving status, please wait...
Sharpless 2 243 and 244 (Crab Nebula) in narrowband, David Elmore
Sharpless 2 243 and 244 (Crab Nebula) in narrowband
Powered byPixInsight

Sharpless 2 243 and 244 (Crab Nebula) in narrowband

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Description

The quest for ever smaller Sharpless objects has led to Sh2-243 and 244 better known as M1 or the Crab Nebula.
Feel free to zoom this wide field image from a telescope not well suited for objects less than 10 arc minutes across.
The Crab Nebula was a 'guest star' in 1054 now 11 ly across at a distance of about 6500ly.
Remaining after the supernova explosion is a spinning Neutron Star called a Pulsar that flashes at 30Hz.
The pre-explosion mass of this star was about 9-11 M-sun.  The remaining Neutron star plus nebulosity have a mass of about 4.6 M-sun.
Could the missing mass be in the surrounding molecular cloud a portion of which shows up here in Hydrogen-alpha?

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Sharpless 2 243 and 244 (Crab Nebula) in narrowband, David Elmore