Centre of the Crab Nebula

This is the central region of the Crab Nebula, the famous supernova remnant in the constellation Taurus (The Bull). It was obtained early in the night of "First Light" with the third 8.2-m VLT Unit Telescope, MELIPAL. It is a composite of several 30-sec exposures with the VLT Test Camera in three broad-band filters, B (here rendered as blue; most synchrotron emission), V (green) and R (red; mostly emission from hydrogen atoms). The Crab Pulsar is visible to the left; it is the lower of the two brightest stars near each other. The image quality is about 0.9 arcsec, and is completely determined by the external seeing caused by the atmospheric turbulence above the telescope at the time of the observation. The coloured, vertical lines to the left are artifacts of a "bad column" of the CCD. The field measures about 1.3 x 1.3 arcmin 2. This image may be compared with that of the same area that was obtained earlier with the FORS2 instrument at KUEYEN. (seeESO Press Photo eso9948 - The Crab Nebula in Taurus).

Bildnachweis:

ESO

Über das Bild

ID:eso0004b
Typ:Beobachtung
Veröffentlichungsdatum:28. Januar 2000
Dazugehörige Veröffentlichungen:eso0004
Größe:885 x 827 px

Über das Objekt

Name:Crab Nebula, M 1, Messier 1, NGC 1952, Taurus A
Typ:Milky Way : Nebula : Type : Supernova Remnant
Milky Way : Star : Evolutionary Stage : Neutron Star : Pulsar
Entfernung:6000 Lichtjahre
Constellation:Taurus
Kategorie:Nebulae
Stars

Bildformate

Großes JPEG
224,7 KB

Bildschirm-Hintergrundbilder

1024x768
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1280x1024
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1920x1200
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2048x1536
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Koordinaten

Position (RA):5 34 30.81
Position (Dec):22° 1' 20.45"
Field of view:1.36 x 1.27 arcminutes
Orientierung:Die Nordrichtung liegt 44.6° rechts zur Vertikale

Farben & Filter

SpektralbereichTeleskop
Optisch
B
Very Large Telescope
Optisch
V
Very Large Telescope
Optisch
R
Very Large Telescope