Nasa has just released these fantastic pictures of the Crab Nebula. Astronomers have detected gamma pulse radiations from this nebula that are higher than anything ever tested and beyond our ability to measure. The Very Energetic Radiation Imaging Telescope Array System (VERITAS) detected these emissions and their findings were published in Science on Friday.
The gamma ray energies detected range between 100 and 400 billion electronvolts, with previous detections only picking up 25 electronvolts. Up until now, the Crab Nebula was one of the best understood systems. But these new findings have thrown the experts an interstellar curveball.
About 6,500 light-years away from Earth, this system was born from a massive star explosion that is said to have occurred in 1054 a.d.. This event was recorded by chinese and native american stargazers. The dying star was located in the constellation Taurus when it exploded into a gigantic supernova.
A pulsar is what you have left after a star's core has exploded. The energy from this particular explosion is stronger than x-rays or 100 billion times stronger than visible light. Pulsars turn into spinning neutron stars. This one is spinning about 30 times a second and is so dense that it has a mass greater than our sun. This nebula is breaking new scientific ground. Scientists have detected high energy coming from the nebula but never before from the pulsar itself.
The pulsar was detected from the Smithsonian's Whipple Telescope, located south of Tucson.
