Among all cosmic structures, nebulas might reign supreme in sheer shock and awe factor. And recently NASA’s James WebbSpace Telescope pointed its near infrared telescope at one many astronomers have been waiting for.
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00:00 [Music]
00:03 Among all cosmic structures, nebulas might reign supreme in sheer shock and awe factor.
00:08 And recently, NASA's James Webb Space Telescope pointed its near-infrared lens at one many astronomers have been waiting for.
00:15 This is the Crab Nebula, a remnant from a supernova explosion located some 6,500 light-years away.
00:21 And for the first time ever, astronomers have now been able to identify the pulsar star at the very center of the whole thing.
00:27 In fact, when the Hubble Space Telescope attempted to find that very pulsar back in 2005, it wasn't able to do so.
00:33 That's largely because Hubble captures light mostly in the visible spectrum, while James Webb does so in mostly near-infrared.
00:39 What's more, the James Webb Telescope is also allowing researchers to figure out what's in the supernova's ejected material.
00:46 In the case of the Crab Nebula, that includes iron and nickel.
00:49 The cosmic splash in space was first discovered back in 1054 CE by 11th century astronomers.
00:55 Since then, it's been a source of constant intrigue to sky-gazers, and it's not hard to see why.
01:01 (gentle music)