Astronomers still haven’t been able to explain the galactic question mark, but this new image of the Crab Nebula captured by the James Webb Space Telescope is another story. Located 6,500 light-years from Earth in the constellation Taurus, this supernova remnant was first observed in 1054 CE by 11th-century astronomers.
Webb’s NIRCam (Near-Infrared Camera) and MIRI (Mid-Infrared Instrument) reveals the Crab Nebula’s cage-like structure of puffy gaseous filaments in red-orange, while the central regions, emission from dust grains (yellow-white and green) is mapped out by Webb for the first time. One other detail not found in Hubble images is synchrotron radiation, or an emission produced from charged particles, such as electrons, moving around magnetic field lines at relativistic speeds. It appears in this image as a milky smoke-like material throughout the majority of the Crab Nebula’s interior.
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Webb’s sensitivity and spatial resolution allow us to accurately determine the composition of the ejected material, particularly the content of iron and nickel, which may reveal what type of explosion produced the Crab Nebula,” said Tea Temim, Research Astronomer at Princeton University.
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