Crab Nebula

Crab Nebula — nebula, explore its interactive 3D model in Cosmoscope.

Explore Crab Nebula in an interactive 3D view of space. Inspect its astronomical data and the observations or reconstructions behind the model.

The shredded remains of a star Chinese astronomers watched explode in 1054 — bright enough then to see in daylight. A city-sized pulsar still powers the glow.

Type

Supernova remnant

Distance

6,500 light-years

Exploded

Seen on Earth in 1054 AD

Heart

Pulsar spinning 30×/second

Expanding at

1,500 km/s

Shown here

Hubble optical envelope + NASA inner X-ray model

Depth

Outer envelope and small gas clumps are illustrative

Colours

Assigned telescope colours, not naked-eye appearance

Explore Crab Nebula in 3D

Crab Nebula is placed in three-dimensional space using catalogue coordinates and an adopted astronomical distance. Rotate and zoom to explore the model. Stellar surfaces, gas structure and dust depths may be reconstructed or illustrative, as described in its facts; this is not live imagery from a telescope.