Crab Nebula Simulation

The Crab nebula is a supernova remnant found in the Taurus constellation. The only remnant of the source star is the Crab Pulsar in the middle which spins every 30 seconds or so an emits gamma rays and x-rays.

The radiation emitted by this awesome supernova remnant is often used to calculate more intersolar bodies. For example, in the 1950's and 1960's the sun's corona was mapped by the Crab Nebula's radio waves passing through it and more recently the thickness of the atmosphere of Titan, one of Saturn's confirmed moons, was studied using the Crab Nebula's radio waves as well.

The Crab Nebula is 6,300 light years away and has an apparent magnitude of only +8.4.

The supernova was recorded by astronomers in 1054 A.D. Below is a sample of what they may have seen:

The Notorious Mars Email

"Mars is coming! Mars is coming!"

That's a familiar subject for email that clogs Exchange servers about every two years about how Mars will be as large as a full moon. This, of course, is totally false. The picture above is often pictured in the email. Stop the email people! We all fell for it once (and don't say you didn't look!) but we know its not that big!

However, there is a bit of truth. Mars will be in the best viewing position for years and it will blaze with a magnitude of -1.6 by December 9th; brighter even than Sirius. You can find Mars between Taurus and Gemini.

Every 26 months, the orbits of Earth and Mars come closest. This makes Mars' magnitude greater and astronomers get their best every-other-year look at the Red Planet.

Pleiades: Seven Bright Sisters

The Pleiades is an open cluster located in the constellation Taurus. This is a region of hot, young, blue stars formed approximately 100 million years ago.

The dust seen is extrinsic, meaning that the cluster is merely passing through a dusty region of space; the dust from the creation of these stars has long dissipated.

This has always been one of my favorite celestial objects. Very bright, very hot, and visible without a telescope!

Check out this great map of the Seven Sisters from Wikipedia.org: