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3w ago

Hubble Maps 25 Years of Expansion in the Crab Nebula

The study ties the remnant’s growth to the central pulsar’s wind.

The Hubble imaged the historic Crab Nebula almost 25 years ago and captured one of the most famous images in astronomy. Now, the telescope has revisited the supernova remnant. The goal was to track how the nebula has expanded and changed. Image Credit: NASA, ESA, STScI, William Blair (JHU); Image Processing: Joseph DePasquale (STScI)
Image

Overview

  • A peer‑reviewed analysis published in January 2026 compares Hubble images from 1999 and 2024 to measure how the Crab Nebula has changed over a quarter century.
  • Astronomers report that bright filaments have shifted outward at roughly 5.5 million kilometers per hour, with the outer edges moving farther than structures nearer the center.
  • The motion reflects a pulsar wind nebula powered by synchrotron radiation from the Crab Pulsar’s magnetic field, rather than shockwaves from the original supernova.
  • Hubble’s Wide Field Camera 3, installed in 2009, resolved finer details than the 1999 images, and filament shadows on the nebula’s glow help place some structures on the near or far side in 3D.
  • Researchers are now pairing these optical measurements with James Webb’s 2024 infrared data to build a fuller 3D picture and to probe two unusual, opposite-side filament groups noted in the new study.