NASA Astronomy Picture of the Day 20 March 2023: M1 Crab Nebula

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French astronomer Charles Messier has been one of the most influential figures in the history of astronomy with major contributions in finding and studying comets, nebulae and more. Although Messier was an avid comet hunter, one of his most amazing discoveries was Messier 1, also known as the Crab Nebula, which he discovered while searching for a comet. According to space.com, Messier discovered a hazy patch in the night sky, which unlike a comet, didn't move. Thus, Messier 1 became one of his first discoveries which became a part of his astronomical catalogue.

Today's NASA Astronomy Picture of the Day is the Messier 1. However, it was first discovered by Chinese astronomers in 1054. Also known as the Crab Nebula, it is located about 6500 light-years away towards the constellation of Taurus and spans about 10 light-years across. The Crab Nebula is now also known to be a supernova remnant, which are the remnants left behind after a supernova explosion.

Are your eyes good enough to see the Crab Nebula expand? The Crab Nebula is cataloged as M1, the first on Charles Messier's famous list of things which are not comets. In fact, the Crab is now known to be a supernova remnant, an expanding cloud of debris from the explosion of a massive star. The violent birth of the Crab was witnessed by astronomers in the year 1054. Roughly 10 light-years across today, the nebula is still expanding at a rate of over 1,000 kilometers per second.

Over the past decade, its expansion has been documented in this stunning time-lapse movie. In each year from 2008 to 2022, an image was produced with the same telescope and camera from a remote observatory in Austria. The sharp, processed frames even reveal the dynamic energetic emission surrounding