00:00Among all cosmic structures, nebulas might reign supreme in sheer shock and awe factor.
00:08And recently NASA's James Webb Space Telescope pointed its near-infrared lens at one many
00:13astronomers have been waiting for.
00:15This is the Crab Nebula, a remnant from a supernova explosion located some 6,500 light
00:21years away.
00:22And for the first time ever, astronomers have now been able to identify the pulsar star
00:26at the very center of the whole thing.
00:28In fact, when the Hubble Space Telescope attempted to find that very pulsar back in 2005, it
00:32wasn't able to do so.
00:34That's largely because Hubble captures light mostly in the visible spectrum, while James
00:37Webb does so in mostly near-infrared.
00:40What's more, the James Webb Telescope is also allowing researchers to figure out what's
00:44in the supernova's ejected material.
00:46In the case of the Crab Nebula, that includes iron and nickel.
00:49The cosmic splash in space was first discovered back in 1054 CE by 11th century astronomers.
00:55Since then, it's been a source of constant intrigue to sky gazers, and it's not hard
00:59to see why.
Comments