12 Facts About Crab Nebula

Crab Nebula is a supernova remnant and pulsar wind nebula in the constellation of Taurus.

At X-ray and gamma ray energies above 30 keV, the Crab Nebula is generally the brightest persistent gamma-ray source in the sky, with measured flux extending to above 10 TeV.

Crab Nebula was the first astronomical object recognized as being connected to a supernova explosion.

Inner part of the Crab Nebula is dominated by a pulsar wind nebula enveloping the pulsar.

Some sources consider the Crab Nebula to be an example of both a pulsar wind nebula as well as a supernova remnant, while others separate the two phenomena based on the different sources of energy production and behaviour.

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Crab Nebula was the first astrophysical object confirmed to emit gamma rays in the very-high-energy band above 100 GeV in energy.

One of the many nebular components of the Crab Nebula is a helium-rich torus which is visible as an east–west band crossing the pulsar region.

At the center of the Crab Nebula are two faint stars, one of which is the star responsible for the existence of the nebula.

However, the discovery of a pulsating radio source in the centre of the Crab Nebula was strong evidence that pulsars were formed by supernova explosions.

In June 2021 a paper in the journal Nature Astronomy reported that the 2018 supernova SN 2018zd appeared to be the first observation of an electron-capture supernova The 1054 supernova explosion that created the Crab Nebula had been thought to be the best candidate for an electron-capture supernova, and the 2021 paper makes it more likely that this was correct.

Significant problem in studies of the Crab Nebula is that the combined mass of the nebula and the pulsar add up to considerably less than the predicted mass of the progenitor star, and the question of where the 'missing mass' is, remains unresolved.

Predominant theory to account for the missing mass of the Crab Nebula is that a substantial proportion of the mass of the progenitor was carried away before the supernova explosion in a fast stellar wind, a phenomenon commonly seen in Wolf–Rayet stars.