Expanding wreckage of a supernova recorded in 1054 AD, with the Crab Pulsar at its center.
Also called: M1.
Supernova remnant: The wreckage, still expanding centuries later. Every kind of thing there is →
Look in the constellation Taurus.
It is best placed in the winter if you are north of the equator.
Also visible fairly well from much of the Southern Hemisphere, just lower in the sky.
Star-hop: Magnitude 8.4, and a small dim smudge in anything short of a large scope.
Finding it: Near the tip of one of the bull's horns in Taurus.
The Planetarium works out where it actually is from your own place and the date — including whether it is above the horizon at all tonight.
A faint wisp of glowing shreds — the leftovers of an exploded star.
Honest, not glamorous — why the pictures here are drawn.
On the 100-meter-track scale model of the Milky Way, the Crab Nebula would be about 6.5 metres from the Sun -- roughly the length of a minibus. Light takes 7 thousand years to get here from the Crab Nebula, so what you are looking at is the Crab Nebula as it was 7 thousand years ago.
| Distance from us | ~6,500 light-years |
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Nobody flew a tape measure out there. Every number on this page was worked out from the ground:
The Milky Wayspiral galaxyNaked eye
Proxima CentauristarWith effortAlpha Centauri A & Bbinary star systemNaked eyeSiriusstarNaked eyeVegastarNaked eyeArcturusstarNaked eyeClear tonight? The Planetarium will show you what is worth a look. Then just go out.