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3h ago

Hubble Tracks 25 Years of the Crab Nebula’s Pulsar-Driven Expansion

New images point to the central neutron star’s wind as the engine of the nebula’s motion.

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

  • The Hubble team, in releases on Monday, unveiled a 1999-to-2024 image comparison that maps the Crab Nebula’s outward motion over a quarter century.
  • The study finds the nebula’s filaments have shifted outward at about 5.5 to 5.6 million kilometers per hour, a pattern tied to a wind from the central pulsar rather than a blast wave from the original supernova.
  • The latest images show filament shadows on the nebula’s inner glow, while some bright strands cast none, placing those features on the far side and revealing parts of the 3D layout.
  • Hubble’s Wide Field Camera 3, installed in 2009, provided sharper detail than earlier views, and the full analysis appeared in The Astrophysical Journal in January 2026.
  • Scientists plan to merge these optical results with James Webb’s 2024 infrared data to refine models of the remnant’s dust, chemistry, and energy flow in this pulsar wind nebula.