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                        Astronomy Picture of the Day

    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 August 24
  The featured image shows the center of the Crab Nebula in colors mapped
      to Hubble, Chandra, and Spitzer space telescopes. The Crab pulsar
     appears in the center surrounded by a spinning disk. Please see the
                 explanation for more detailed information.

                   The Spinning Pulsar of the Crab Nebula
     Image Credit: NASA: X-ray: Chandra (CXC), Optical: Hubble (STScI),
                       Infrared: Spitzer (JPL-Caltech)

   Explanation: At the core of the Crab Nebula lies a city-sized,
   magnetized neutron star spinning 30 times a second. Known as the Crab
   Pulsar, it is the bright spot in the center of the gaseous swirl at the
   nebula's core. About twelve light-years across, the spectacular picture
   frames the glowing gas, cavities and swirling filaments near the Crab
   Nebula's center. The featured picture combines visible light from the
   Hubble Space Telescope in purple, X-ray light from the Chandra X-ray
   Observatory in blue, and infrared light from the Spitzer Space
   Telescope in red. Like a cosmic dynamo, the Crab pulsar powers the
   emission from the nebula, driving a shock wave through surrounding
   material and accelerating the spiraling electrons. With more mass than
   the Sun and the density of an atomic nucleus,the spinning pulsar is the
   collapsed core of a massive star that exploded. The outer parts of the
   Crab Nebula are the expanding remnants of the star's component gases.
   The supernova explosion was witnessed on planet Earth in the year 1054.

    Sky Surprise: What picture did APOD feature on your birthday? (after
                                    1995)
                    Tomorrow's picture: stellar surprise
     __________________________________________________________________

       Authors & editors: Robert Nemiroff (MTU) & Jerry Bonnell (UMCP)
            NASA Official: Amber Straughn Specific rights apply.
                  NASA Web Privacy, Accessibility, Notices;
                      A service of: ASD at NASA / GSFC,
                           NASA Science Activation
                             & Michigan Tech. U.

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