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This Hubble image of the southern crab nebula shows two stellar bodies swirling around each other. They are too close together to see individually, but we can see the consequences of the proximity of the two. ( NASA, ESA, STScI | The Hubble Space Telescope )
In celebration of the 29th anniversary of the launch of the Hubble Space Telescope, NASA and ESA have released a stunning image of the Southern Crab Nebula captured by the Space Telescope for the occasion.
The images captured by Hubble are relevant to the scientific community as well as to members of the general public who wish to gain insight into the universe.
29th anniversary of launch
Each year, the Hubble Space Telescope spends a small portion of its time capturing special images for its birthday, focusing primarily on the beautiful objects of the universe. On his 29th birthday, since his launch aboard Space Shuttle Discovery on April 24, 1990, he has captured and shared a beautiful image of the South Crab Nebula.
Interestingly, it's actually Hubble who captured for the first time a clear picture of the nebula in 1999 and gave astronomers an idea of what it really is. In 1967, it was thought that it was simply an ordinary star until 1989, when other observations revealed that it was from an elongated nebula shaped like a crab. However, it was only when Hubble captured the images in 1999 that the experts really had a complete view of the structure. It is therefore appropriate to have it now as a birthday picture, 20 years later.
Southern Crab Nebula
The southern Crabie nebula, not to be confused with the famous nebula Crabs of the constellation Taurus, is located thousands of light-years away from Earth in the southern hemisphere of the Centaur constellation. It presents hourglass – shaped structures that actually result from the interaction of an uneven pair of stars in the center, including a red giant and the other a white dwarf.
While the red giant rejects some of its material during its last years, part of it is captured by the gravitational pull of the white dwarf and also gets rid of its own material. This interaction is what causes the beautiful structures we see in the picture.
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