primarily interested in discovering new comets, to begin his famous Catalogue of Messier Objects so other comet hunters would not be confused by such “uninteresting” patches of light. The Crab Nebula was the first entry in Messier’s catalogue and to this day it is often referred to by the designation M1.
    The Crab Nebula has played a central role in helping astronomers understand supernovae and high- energy astrophysics. It was the first nebula recognized as a remnant of a supernova explosion and it was the first that was linked to a historically observed event. Because of the peculiar nature of its optical radiation and the rapid expansion of its filaments, it inspired the scientific investigations that led to the discovery of synchrotron