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).

Crédit:

ESO

À propos de l'image

Identification:eso0004b
Type:Observation
Date de publication:28 janvier 2000
Communiqués de presse en rapport:eso0004
Taille:885 x 827 px

À propos de l'objet

Nom:Crab Nebula, M 1, Messier 1, NGC 1952, Taurus A
Type:Milky Way : Nebula : Type : Supernova Remnant
Milky Way : Star : Evolutionary Stage : Neutron Star : Pulsar
Distance:6000 années lumière
Constellation:Taurus
Catégorie:Nebulae
Stars

Image Formats

Grand JPEG
224,7 Kio
JPEG taille écran
216,3 Kio

Fonds d'écran

1024x768
259,2 Kio
1280x1024
400,6 Kio
1600x1200
538,2 Kio
1920x1200
614,4 Kio
2048x1536
796,0 Kio

Coordinates

Position (RA):5 34 30.81
Position (Dec):22° 1' 20.45"
Field of view:1.36 x 1.27 arcminutes
Orientation:North is 44.6° right of vertical

Couleurs & filtres

DomaineTélescope
Visible
B
Very Large Telescope
Visible
V
Very Large Telescope
Visible
R
Very Large Telescope