00:00 [Music]
00:03 Among all cosmic structures, nebulas might reign supreme in sheer shock and awe factor.
00:08 And recently, NASA's James Webb Space Telescope pointed its near-infrared lens at one many astronomers have been waiting for.
00:15 This is the Crab Nebula, a remnant from a supernova explosion located some 6,500 light-years away.
00:21 And for the first time ever, astronomers have now been able to identify the pulsar star at the very center of the whole thing.
00:27 In fact, when the Hubble Space Telescope attempted to find that very pulsar back in 2005, it wasn't able to do so.
00:33 That's largely because Hubble captures light mostly in the visible spectrum, while James Webb does so in mostly near-infrared.
00:39 What's more, the James Webb Telescope is also allowing researchers to figure out what's in the supernova's ejected material.
00:46 In the case of the Crab Nebula, that includes iron and nickel.
00:49 The cosmic splash in space was first discovered back in 1054 CE by 11th century astronomers.
00:55 Since then, it's been a source of constant intrigue to sky-gazers, and it's not hard to see why.
01:01 (gentle music)
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