Astronomy Picture of the Day [1]Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation written by a professional astronomer. 2025 May 8 [2]The Crab Nebula, M1, is shown as imaged by the James Webb Space Telescope. The rollover image is the same Crab Nebula but this time from the Hubble Space Telescope. The Webb image is in near infrared light, while the Hubble image is in visible light. Please see the explanation for more detailed information. M1: The Incredible Expanding Crab Image Credit: [3]NASA, [4]ESA, [5]CSA, [6]STScI; Jeff Hester (ASU), Allison Loll (ASU), Tea Temim (Princeton University) Explanation: Cataloged as M1, the Crab Nebula is the first on [7]Charles Messier's famous list of things which are [8]not comets. In fact, [9]the Crab Nebula is now known to be a supernova remnant, an expanding cloud of debris from the death explosion of a massive star. The violent birth of the Crab was [10]witnessed by astronomers in the year 1054. Roughly [11]10 light-years across, the nebula is still expanding [12]at a rate of about 1,500 kilometers per second. [13]You can see the expansion by [14]comparing these sharp images from the Hubble Space Telescope and James Webb Space Telescope. The Crab's dynamic, fragmented filaments were captured in visible light by Hubble in 2005 and Webb in infrared light in 2023. [15]This cosmic crustacean lies about 6,500 light-years away in the [16]constellation Taurus. Tomorrow's picture: interstellar particle beams __________________________________________________________________ [17]< | [18]Archive | [19]Submissions | [20]Index | [21]Search | [22]Calendar | [23]RSS | [24]Education | [25]About APOD | [26]Discuss | [27]> __________________________________________________________________ Authors & editors: [28]Robert Nemiroff ([29]MTU) & [30]Jerry Bonnell ([31]UMCP) NASA Official: Amber Straughn [32]Specific rights apply. [33]NASA Web Privacy Policy and Important Notices A service of: [34]ASD at [35]NASA / [36]GSFC, [37]NASA Science Activation & [38]Michigan Tech. U. References 1. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/archivepix.html 2. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/2505/Crab_Webb_998.jpg 3. https://www.nasa.gov/ 4. https://www.esa.int/ 5. https://www.asc-csa.gc.ca/eng/ 6. https://www.stsci.edu/ 7. http://messier.seds.org/xtra/history/m-cat71.html 8. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap110901.html 9. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap010602.html 10. http://messier.seds.org/more/m001_sn.html 11. https://webbtelescope.org/contents/media/images/2023/137/01HBBNDST58J87YXWKXFR2DSPX 12. https://cds.unistra.fr/twikiAIDA/pub/EuroVOAIDA/WP5WorkProgrammeUsecases/m1_en.pdf 13. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap230320.html 14. https://webbtelescope.org/contents/media/images/2023/137/01HBVBFT0VVMN8EP3TQVFMSPEQ 15. https://webbtelescope.org/contents/media/videos/2023/137/01HDS5S3XBRCK1KNRH67WW2HPW 16. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap121224.html 17. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap250507.html 18. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/archivepix.html 19. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/lib/apsubmit2015.html 20. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/lib/aptree.html 21. https://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/cgi-bin/apod/apod_search 22. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/calendar/allyears.html 23. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod.rss 24. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/lib/edlinks.html 25. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/lib/about_apod.html 26. http://asterisk.apod.com/discuss_apod.php?date=250508 27. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap250509.html 28. http://www.phy.mtu.edu/faculty/Nemiroff.html 29. http://www.phy.mtu.edu/ 30. https://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/htmltest/jbonnell/www/bonnell.html 31. http://www.astro.umd.edu/ 32. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/lib/about_apod.html#srapply 33. https://www.nasa.gov/about/highlights/HP_Privacy.html 34. https://astrophysics.gsfc.nasa.gov/ 35. https://www.nasa.gov/ 36. https://www.nasa.gov/centers/goddard/ 37. https://science.nasa.gov/learners 38. http://www.mtu.edu/