David Aguilar(617) 495-7462 Christine Pulliam(617) 495-7463 pubaffairs@cfa
Sky Chart: February 2012
8:00 pm EST on February 15, 2012. Looking at Zenith, South at Bottom. (click to enlarge)*
Not far from the zenith on early February evenings lies one of the most remarkable objects in the sky: the Crab Nebula. The Crab exploded into our planet's history in the year 1054 C.E., when Indian, Arabic, Chinese, and Japanese records mention the appearance of a bright star in the region. For a time it was brilliant enough to be visible in broad daylight. Telescopic observers in the 1700s noted a nebula in the region, and the object became M1 - Messier object number one - in Charles Messier's catalog of non-cometary objects. In 1848 the Earl of Ross called it the Crab Nebula because of its shape. It is now known to be the remnant of a supernova - a star that has reached the end of its normal life and undergone a massive explosion. The remnant of the star's core has become an ultradense neutron star - an object perhaps 20 miles across and spinning at a furious rate of over 30 revolutions per second! Who says astronomy is dull?
