With filaments of gas reaching out like claws, the Crab Nebula testifies to one of the most spectacular of all astronomical events: a supernova explosion. Located in the constella- tion Taurus, this immense cloud of gas is actually debris from the explosion of a massive star. The Crab Nebula, known scientifically but prosaically as M1 and NGC 1952, has been more thoroughly studied than any other supernova remnant. Even its cataclysmic birth was observed and recorded as early as 1054 by the imperial court astronomers of the Sung Dynasty in China, although its true nature was not understood for hundreds of years.
This image clearly bears witness to an explosion. Successive photo- graphs taken over decades have
