Sky position, distance and size
Crab Nebula is placed at J2000 RA 5.6 h, Dec 22° at 6,500 light-years, with a bright-shell diameter of 11 light-years.
EpochJ2000
Space Time
Supernova remnant · evidence and sources
Crab Nebula
The expanding debris of the supernova seen in 1054, energised from within by a 33-millisecond pulsar.
Also known as M1, NGC 1952, Tau A.
Catalog
Position basis, the same label the app shows on the selection card.
Every aspect, with its origin
One record per aspect. The origin says what kind of thing each value is; the source says where it came from; the limit says what it cannot tell you.
ObservedCatalogComputedReconstructedIllustrativeUndocumented
Adopted distance and size
The model is scaled to a bright-shell diameter of 11 light-years at 6,500 light-years, the values published with the source model.
LimitDistance estimates for remnants differ between methods; the page uses the value adopted by the model's authors.
Published 3D reconstruction
The fly-in shows the published NASA multi-observatory 3D reconstruction mesh, placed at the remnant's sky position and scaled to the listed diameter. It is an authored scientific visualisation built from observations, not a tomographic map of the gas.
LimitThe single-colour source mesh is tinted for legibility; brightness and colour are not calibrated.
What is not measured
- Appearance: a reconstruction from measurements, not a direct observation. Published 3D reconstruction. The single-colour source mesh is tinted for legibility; brightness and colour are not calibrated.