M1: 不断扩张的蟹状星云

2023年3月20日

M1: The Expanding Crab Nebula
Video Credit & Copyright: Detlef Hartmann

Explanation: Are your eyes good enough to see the Crab Nebula expand? The Crab Nebula is cataloged as M1, the first on Charles Messier’s famous list of things which are not comets. In fact, the Crab is now known to be a supernova remnant, an expanding cloud of debris from the explosion of a massive star. The violent birth of the Crab was witnessed by astronomers in the year 1054. Roughly 10 light-years across today, the nebula is still expanding at a rate of over 1,000 kilometers per second. Over the past decade, its expansion has been documented in this stunning time-lapse movie. In each year from 2008 to 2022, an image was produced with the same telescope and camera from a remote observatory in Austria. The sharp, processed frames even reveal the dynamic energetic emission surrounding the rapidly spinning pulsar at the center. The Crab Nebula lies about 6,500 light-years away toward the constellation of the Bull (Taurus).

Tomorrow’s picture: beautiful dust

M1: 不断扩张的蟹状星云
视频提供与版权: Detlef Hartmann

说明: 你的视力是否好到能看见蟹状星云在扩张？编号为M1的蟹状星云，是梅西叶在18世纪所编录的著名“非彗星”星表里的第一号天体。如今的我们当然知道，蟹状星云实际上是个超新星遗迹，是大质量恒星死亡爆炸后，遗留下来的扩张碎片云。而造就蟹状星云的剧变事件，（北宋的）天文学家在公元1054年有第一手的观测记录。目前这团大约宽10光年的星云，仍然以每秒超过1,000公里的速率在扩张，而它在过去10年的扩张状况，可参见上面这部令人赞叹的缩时视频。摄影者于2008年到2017年期间，使用同一部澳地利遥控望远镜和相机在每年拍下一张照片，然后再用这10张总曝光时间32小时的照片，组合出这部缩时视频。这些经过处理的清晰视频定格，甚至可以解析出扩张蟹状星云内波霎中子星周围的高能辐射之动态变化。蟹状星云位在金牛座的方向，离我们约6,500光年远。

明日的图片: beautiful dust