◈ Crab Nebula

  Crab Nebula is a planetary nebula in Taurus.

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  Type            Planetary nebula
  Constellation   Taurus
  Magnitude       11.0
  Apparent size   6′ × 4′

  Known as
  Messier         M1
  Dreyer          NGC 1952

  Physical
  Distance        6,500 light years
  Age             the star exploded in 1054 and was seen in daylight

  More information about Crab Nebula

  Chinese and Japanese astronomers recorded a new star in Taurus in July
  1054, bright enough to see in daylight for three weeks. What is left of
  this supernova is the Crab Nebula. It still expanding at 1,500
  kilometres a second, with a neutron star at the centre spinning 30 times
  a second. Its name comes from a sketch Lord Rosse made in 1844 through
  the telescope at Birr Castle. The drawing looks like a crab and, even if
  the later photographs do not, the name survived.

  History
  Discovered   1731, John Bevis

  Etymology
  From         English
  Reading      Crab Nebula
  Literally    a crab

  Messier was hunting comets. He compiled his list between 1758 and 1781
  as a register of things that look like comets but are not. That's why
  the objects on it have nothing in common beyond being fuzzy and staying
  put.

  Dreyer compiled the New General Catalogue in 1888, mostly from the
  sweeps William and John Herschel made of the sky, and numbered its 7,840
  objects in order of right ascension.

  where it is tonight:  skymap.sh/Crab Nebula