Space photo of the week: James Webb telescope finds a secret at the Crab Nebula's heart

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The James Webb Space Telescope has revealed the most detailed image so far of the Crab Nebula, a gorgeous supernova remnant of a star that exploded 1,000 years ago.

The Crab Nebula. An oval nebula with complex structure against a black background. On the nebula’s exterior, particularly at the top left and bottom left, lie curtains of glowing red and orange fluffy material. Its interior shell shows large-scale loops of mottled filaments of yellow-white and green, studded with clumps and knots.
This new JWST image of the Crab Nebula reveals new details in infrared light. (Image credit: NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI, T. Temim (Princeton University))

What it is: The highest-resolution image of the Crab Nebula (M1) ever taken

Where it is: 6,500 light-years away, in the constellation Taurus

The leftovers of a giant star's explosive demise almost 1,000 years ago in 1054 , the Crab Nebula consists of a rapidly rotating neutron star (the dense remains of the star's core) at its center, surrounded by a vast, expanding shell of gas. In JWST's image, it's possible to see, for the first time, wispy gas filaments in supersharp detail in red-orange. Inside the nebula, light from dust grains shines in yellow-white and green. 

How to see it in the night sky: From the Northern Hemisphere, the Crab Nebula is relatively easy to find as a hazy patch in the night sky if you have a pair of stargazing binoculars or a good small telescope. It's about halfway between two bright stars in the autumn night sky: Betelgeuse, in Orion, and Capella, in Auriga. According to the Hubble website, the Crab Nebula gets its name from a drawing by Irish astronomer Lord Rosse (William Parsons), who in 1844 sketched the fiery remnant after observing it through a 36-inch (91 centimeters) telescope.

Jamie Carter
Jamie Carter
Live Science contributor

Jamie Carter is a Cardiff, U.K.-based freelance science journalist and a regular contributor to Live Science. He is the author of A Stargazing Program For Beginners and co-author of The Eclipse Effect, and leads international stargazing and eclipse-chasing tours. His work appears regularly in Space.com, Forbes, New Scientist, BBC Sky at Night, Sky & Telescope, and other major science and astronomy publications. He is also the editor of WhenIsTheNextEclipse.com.