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 is the remnant of a supernova that appeared in 1054.

From Science Daily • Nov. 18, 2024

A theoretical astrophysicist from the University of Kansas may have solved a nearly two-decade-old mystery over the origins of an unusual "zebra" pattern seen in high-frequency radio pulses from the Crab Nebula.

From Science Daily • Nov. 18, 2024

The energy from the Crab Nebula pulsar arrives in sharp bursts that occur 30 times each second—with a regularity that would be the envy of a Swiss watchmaker.

From Textbooks • Oct. 13, 2016

One evocative idea is that it was a cosmic catastrophe, the explosion of a nearby star—a supernova like the one that produced the Crab Nebula.

From "Cosmos" by Carl Sagan