25 years is a short time on the cosmic scale, but these images taken by Hubble in 1999 and 2024, show distinct changes in the structure of the expanding Crab Nebula.

[akasci@fosstodon.org]

25 years is a short time on the cosmic scale, but these images taken by Hubble in 1999 and 2024, show distinct changes in the structure of the expanding Crab Nebula.

Rather than stretching out over time, filaments appear to have simply moved outward.

Its filaments are driven outward by energy from the dense, rapidly spinning pulsar at the core of the nebula, which is the remaining core of the star 6,500 light years away, that went supernova in 1054.

https://science.nasa.gov/missions/hubble/nasas-hubble-revisits-crab-nebula-to-track-25-years-of-expansion/
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[akasci@fosstodon.org]

Two examples from the Hubble images taken in 1999-2000 and 2024 highlight the movement of the filaments in the Crab Nebula.

Data from 2000 is shown in Cyan, from 2024 in red.

Left panel: a region toward the east side of the Crab.
Right panel: a region toward the west side of the Crab.

"The outward motion is obvious. Both epochs show similar structure, with few if any discernible changes in relative intensity."

More in the paper at https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.3847/1538-4357/ae2adc#apjae2adcf4
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[mattcraig@mastodon.social]

@AkaSci Thanks for the detail view. It was hard to discern the differences from the full nebula images.