Crab Nebula

American  

noun

Astronomy.

1. the remnant of a supernova explosion, observed in 1054 a.d., in the constellation Taurus.

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Crab Nebula British  

noun

1. the expanding remnant of the supernova observed in 1054 _ad , lying in the constellation Taurus at an approximate distance of 6500 light years

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Etymology

Origin of Crab Nebula

First recorded in 1885–90

Example Sentences

The Crab Pulsar sits at the center of the Crab Nebula in the Perseus Arm of the Milky Way, about 6,500 light-years from Earth.

From Science Daily • Mar. 28, 2026

The Crab Nebula features a neutron star at its center that has formed into a 12-mile-wide pulsar pinwheeling electromagnetic radiation across the cosmos.

From Science Daily • Nov. 18, 2024

Additional aspects of the inner workings of the Crab Nebula become more prominent and are seen in greater detail in the infrared light captured by Webb.

From Science Daily • Oct. 30, 2023

For instance, in contrast to the case of SN 1054, which yielded the spinning pulsar in the Crab Nebula, none of these historical supernovae shows any evidence of stellar remnants that have survived their explosions.

From Textbooks • Oct. 13, 2016

The neutron star at the center of the Crab Nebula is an immense atomic nucleus, about the size of Manhattan, spinning thirty times a second.

From "Cosmos" by Carl Sagan