The star exploded almost 1,000 years ago and left us with the magnificent Crab Nebula. Here’s how to see it

Date: July 4, 1054 AD.

At dawn, astronomers in China and on the other side of the world in what is now the desert southwest of the United States—cave artists of the Anasazi and Mimbres Indian tribes—looked into the eastern sky. All these ancient people knew the sky; knew every star like an old friend. But suddenly here, in front of them, next to the thin waning crescent of the moon, a dazzling star shone, which no one had seen before. And what an amazing star he was!

In terms of brightness, it initially seemed at least several times brighter than Venus and was clearly visible in the clear blue daytime sky for 23 days before it began to slowly fade. It was visible to the naked eye for a total of 653 days before it finally disappeared from view completely. The Chinese called such a star a “guest star” because it visited for a while and then left.

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Fortunately, people who observed this strange object almost a millennium ago carefully recorded its position in the sky: approximately two widths full moon northwest of the apex of the star known as Zeta Tauri, marking the southern horn Taurus Ox.

Shiny Planet Jupiter is close to that place in the sky right now.

And today, when we look at the location of this strange guest star, we see a fuzzy patch of stardust with tendrils of hot gas moving rapidly in all directions from where the star literally exploded.

What a catastrophic explosion it must have been!

Connected: The famous Crab Nebula glows in stunning images from the James Webb Space Telescope (video, image)

Destructive detonation

Although some stellar explosions are not very large, this one was absolutely devastating, changing the entire character of the star. Today we call it supernovafrom lat. Stella Nova or “new star”. But this star was not a new star, she was nearing the end of her career and might better be called a dying star.

A typical nova can maintain enormous energy expenditure for a while, after which it returns to its previous vagueness. At the peak of its eruption, the star sheds its outer layers, increasing its brightness by an estimated 50,000 times or more. We’ve even seen cases stars who have suffered such distortions more than once.

But there is no second time for a supernova.

In the case of the 1054 Guest Star, a star at least ten times more massive than our Sun appears to have instantly converted most of its mass into radiant energy; the burst star suddenly burst into flames with a luminosity perhaps equal to 400 billion suns!

Although people here are Earth saw the star explode in 1054, we now know it is around 6500. light years from us. So, in fact, this colossal explosion actually happened around 5446 BC, and then it took about 6,300 years for the light from this explosion to finally reach us.

Remaining stardust

Afterwards, nothing was left except the star’s extremely hot, newly discovered core and the expanding cloud of gaseous debris we today call Crab Nebula. At this point, the material ejected from the supernova has spread across a volume approximately 10 light-years in diameter and, incredibly, it is still expanding outward at a very high rate of about 1,100 miles (1,800 km) per second.

The first person to see the Crab was the English physician and amateur astronomer John Bevis in 1731. Then, on September 12, 1758, Charles Messier wrote down what he described as

“…nebula above the southern horn Taurus . . . there is no star in it; it is a whitish light, elongated like a candle flame; discovered during the observation of the 1758 comet.”

In fact, it was the Crab Nebula’s resemblance to a telescopic comet that prompted Messier to compile his famous catalog of such fuzzy objects that they could not fool others. comet hunters. The Crab Nebula is first on his list and is therefore known as M (Messier) 1. The nickname “Crab Nebula” comes from a sketch of it made in 1844 by the English astronomer, the third Earl of Rosset.

Where to find it

To see the Crab Nebula with your own eyes, you’ll have to wait until about midnight local daylight time, after it rises high enough above the horizon from the east to northeast. You must also have access to dark and clear skies, since planetary nebulae, although relatively bright, are under visual illumination magnitude +8.4, The Crab, unfortunately, tends to get lost in the background lighting in overexposed areas.

It may be barely noticeable as a rather featureless dim spot of light in good binoculars. It is easier to detect in a 3-inch telescope, but in telescopes with an aperture of 6 inches or larger it begins to have an irregular oval shape. But see some jagged edges; The thin outer filament-like structure that gives rise to its name, you will need a much larger telescope, starting with an aperture of about 16 inches. Only then – and only under excellent sky conditions – will hints of fibers and fine structure appear nebula begin to become visible.

illustration of the night sky showing a large V-shaped constellation of stars

Location of the Crab Nebula in the constellation Taurus. (Image credit: Stellarium)

Whirling fast

In November 1968, the core of the exploding star that gave rise to the material found in the Crab Nebula was discovered to be pulsar; fast rotating neutron starspinning at an incredible speed of about 33 times per second! Apparently, there is a “hot spot” on the surface of the star, emitting energy in almost all parts of the electromagnetic spectrum. Therefore, as it rotates on its axis, from our earthly perspective it appears to be “pulsating.” This pulsar is only a fraction of the size of our Sun, but by its nature it would be extremely dense; the equivalent of compacting and compressing one solar mass into a volume measuring just 50 miles/30 kilometers in diameter.

If somehow even a teaspoon of this material could be brought to our Earth, it would probably weigh many hundreds of tons!

Still waiting for another one

Another point worth mentioning for the future is that a spectacular supernova in our galaxy is an extremely rare event. In 1987, a supernova occurred that could be observed with the naked eye. Large Magellanic Cloudour satellite galaxy Milky Way. Unfortunately, at a distance of 190,000 light years, this supernova seemed no brighter than a fourth magnitude star.

But over the past thousand years, there have been four supernovae recorded in our galaxy that were truly eye-catching. There is a record of a bright supernova that appeared in 1006 in the constellation Lupus the Wolf. Incredibly, this explosion could even rival the one that occurred in 1054.

When and where to watch

Another supernova in 1572 erupted in Cassiopeia Queen and was widely observed by a Danish astronomer. Tycho Brahe. Another one appeared in 1604, this time in the constellation OphiuchusSnake holder. Unfortunately, this latest supernova occurred just a few years before the invention of the telescope. Since then, no such blinders have appeared in our sky. We must believe that it is high time for us to do something else.

Perhaps tonight will be that night.

Joe Rao is a faculty member and visiting lecturer at New York University. Hayden Planetarium. He writes about astronomy for Journal of Natural History, Farmers’ Almanac and other publications.

Joe Rao is a faculty member and visiting lecturer at New York University. Hayden Planetarium. He writes about astronomy For Journal of Natural History, Farmers’ Almanac and other publications.