The Crab Nebula is another beautiful supernova remnant left over from an explosion observed by Chinese astronomers in 1054. Older than Tycho's supernova and slightly closer to us, it is possible to see the fine structure within this ex-star's gas cloud. Like a dying firework there are "filaments" stretching out to the edges of the cloud from where the supernova went off. It is possible to see more features by looking at the image below, a composite of the X-Ray and infrared light from the nebula. The outer regions show the X-Ray light but in the middle you can see the very tiny dot that has been left behind in infrared light. Within that dot is a very tiny ball of left over star that is a few kilometres across. Literally the size of a small city this small lump of dense, old star sends out signals to this day that astronomers can still pick up in the radio band. This little ball is called a "Pulsar" as it gives out light in pulses. The crab nebula is also ten light years across. To give you an idea of scale the Pulsar in the centre is so tiny compared to the gas cloud the supernova caused that if you were the Pulsar the edge of the gas cloud would be beyond the distance between the Earth and the Sun.
I'm currently obtaining my doctorate in Astrophysics making me a huge nerd. I'm a fan of movies, books and games as well as having a big soft spot for music, particularly soundtracks. If it's an hour long discussion about which Final Fantasy game was the best, I'm your best bet.
