Crab Nebula - Animated Tour

This animation depicts the remnants of an exploded supernova, known as the Crab Nebula.  NASA provides us with the following information about it:

"In 1054 A.D., a star's death in the constellation Taurus was observed on Earth. Now, almost a thousand years later, a superdense neutron star left behind by the explosion is spewing out a blizzard of extremely high-energy particles into the expanding debris field known as the Crab Nebula.

"This image combines data from Hubble, Spitzer and Chandra telescopes. The size of the X-ray image is smaller than the others because ultrahigh-energy X-ray emitting electrons radiate away their energy more quickly than the lower-energy electrons emitting optical and infrared light.

"By studying the Crab Nebula, astronomers hope to unlock the secrets of how similar objects across the universe are powered."

Credits

Online clip, courtesy NASA.

Credit for this animation, as follows: 

X-ray: NASA/CXC/ASU/J.Hester et al.;

Optical: NASA/ESA/ASU/J.Hester & A.Loll;

Infrared: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Univ. Minn./R.Gehrz