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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00:00Among all cosmic structures, nebulas might reign supreme in sheer shock and awe factor.
00:08And recently NASA's James Webb Space Telescope pointed its near-infrared lens at one many
00:13astronomers have been waiting for.
00:15This is the Crab Nebula, a remnant from a supernova explosion located some 6,500 light
00:21years away.
00:22And for the first time ever, astronomers have now been able to identify the pulsar star
00:26at the very center of the whole thing.
00:28In fact, when the Hubble Space Telescope attempted to find that very pulsar back in 2005, it
00:32wasn't able to do so.
00:34That's largely because Hubble captures light mostly in the visible spectrum, while James
00:37Webb does so in mostly near-infrared.
00:40What's more, the James Webb Telescope is also allowing researchers to figure out what's
00:44in the supernova's ejected material.
00:46In the case of the Crab Nebula, that includes iron and nickel.
00:49The cosmic splash in space was first discovered back in 1054 CE by 11th century astronomers.
00:55Since then, it's been a source of constant intrigue to sky gazers, and it's not hard
00:59to see why.