A Giant Hubble Mosaic of the Crab Nebula

*Description*: This composite image of the Crab Nebula uses data from three of NASA's Great Observatories. The Chandra X-ray image is shown in light blue, the Hubble Space Telescope optical images are in green and dark blue, and the Spitzer Space Telescope's infrared image is in red. The size of the X-ray image is smaller than the others because the outwardly streaming higher-energy electrons emitting X-ray light radiate away their energy more quickly than the lower-energy electrons emitting optical and infrared light. The neutron star, which has the mass equivalent to the sun crammed into a rapidly spinning ball of neutrons twelve miles across, is the bright white dot in the center of the image. Technical facts about this news release: About the Object Object Name: Crab Nebula (NGC 1952) Object Description: Supernova Remnant Position (J2000): R.A. 05h 34m 32s Dec. 22° 00' 52" Constellation: Taurus Distance: The distance to NGC 1952 is 6500 light-years (2.0 kpc). Dimensions: The image is 6 arcminutes along the bottom (12 light-years or 3.7 pc). About the Data Data Description: The Hubble image was created from HST data from proposal 8222: J. Hester and A. Loll (Arizona State University), W. Blair and R. Sankrit (Johns Hopkins University), and P.Scowen (Arizona State University). D. de Martin (www.skyfactory.org, Venice, Italy) also helped in the creation of this image. Instrument: WFPC2 Exposure Date(s): October 1999, January 2000, and December 2000 Filters: F502N ([O III]), F631N ([O I]), F673N ([S II]) About the Image Image Credit: NASA, ESA and J. Hester (Arizona State University) Release Date: December 1, 2005 Orientation: A Giant Hubble Mosaic of the Crab Nebula [ http://imgsrc.hubblesite.org/hu/db/2005/37/images/a/formats/compass_large_web.jpg ] *News Release Number:*: STScI-2005-37b

NASA Identifier: SPD-HUBBLE-STScI-2005-37b