Southern Crab Nebula imaging and spectroscopy

I designed the imaging part of these Hubble observations of the Southern Crab Nebula. We also obtained spectra of the core of the nebula. This image and spectra were released for Hubble's 29th anniversary. See the full press release for details.

This Hubble image shows the results of two stellar companions in a gravitational waltz, several thousand light-years from Earth in the southern constellation Centaurus. The stellar duo, consisting of a red giant and white dwarf, are too close together to see individually in this view. But the consequences of their whirling about each other are two vast shells of gas expanding into space like a runaway hot air balloon. Both stars are embedded in a flat disk of hot material that constricts the outflowing gas so that it only escapes away above and below the stars. This apparently happens in episodes because the nebula has two distinct nested hourglass-shaped structures. The bubbles of gas and dust appear brightest at the edges, giving the illusion of crab legs. The rich colors correspond to glowing hydrogen, sulfur, nitrogen, and oxygen. This image was taken to celebrate Hubble's 29th anniversary since its launch on April 24, 1990.

This diagram illustrates how Hubble Space Telescope spectral observations were used to study the chemical makeup of the Southern Crab Nebula. The hourglass-shaped nebula contains elements forged in the interior of its two aging central stars that were then blasted back into space. Energized by radiation from the pair of bright stars, each of these elements glows in specific colors (or wavelengths) of light. Hubble's Space Telescope Imaging Spectrograph (STIS) divided the light from the nebula's filaments to record the emission from hydrogen, sulfur, oxygen, and nitrogen. The combination of STIS spectroscopy and the image from Hubble's Wide Field Camera 3 shows specifically which gases were detected and how they are distributed in the nebula. The STIS spectrum allows for a better understanding of the nature of the two stars at the nebula's center. Now injected into interstellar space, these elements will be available for future generations of stars, planets, and possibly life. NASA's upcoming James Webb Space Telescope will routinely use spectroscopy to explore a wide range of astronomical research, from exoplanets to the remote universe.