APOD post: Composite Crab

The Crab Nebula is M1, the first object in Messier's list. The Nebula is in fact a Super Nova Remnant. Its clouds expanding and fueled by the Crab Pulsar a neutron star spinning 30 times a second. The star is the collapsed core of the massive star that caused the explosion, which was seen in 1054. The star is the bright spot near center of the picture. The picture itself is a false color image taken from various satellites incuding Hubble, Spitzer, and Chandra.
The Crab Nebula is 12 light-years across and is 6,500 light-years away in the constellation Taurus.