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Crab Nebula
What Happened?
Palomar, PRC96-22a, ST Sci OPO, May 30, 1996, J.Hester and P. Scowen (AZ State Univ.) and NASA
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Almost one thousand years later, the Crab Nebula still glows, and informs us of
its fascinating story. It begins about 30 million
years ago, when a rather large star began to radiate. Because of its size, it
was destined to live an abbreviated life (from a cosmic point of view!), compared
to the 10 billion years or so that is allotted
to our own Sun. As a reward, perhaps, it was also destined to go out in a blaze
of glory, for 100 days rivalling the light output of our entire galaxy containing
one hundred billion stars.
At the close of its existence, this star recycles itself into the fabric of our
universe. It simply explodes, not from its surface as do other less massive
stars, but from the very core of its central fire. We are still witnessing this
explosion, 7000 years after it occurred.
Carnegie Observatories, Washington, D.C.
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"Wait! You made a mistake," I hear you cry. "You just said the explosion happened in 1054! That's only 1000 years ago."
No Mistake has been made. It really did happen 7000 years ago.
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