@Sidewinder o wow!!! The horse head nebula with the red shade is super pretty! Can i use it tomorrow for my nebula week and tag you like this one for credit?
@Sidewinder Decades ago when I took astrophysics, the professor told us that astrophysics could be roughly divided into two equal parts: the study of the Crab Nebula, and the study of the rest of the universe! (Since that time, other supernovae and other cosmological observations have attracted attention away from the Crab.)
In 1054 AD, Japanese and Chinese astronomers recorded the supernova that evolved into the Crab Nebula. Studying the nebula tells us how heavy elements get created and distributed, and how shockwaves travel through the vacuum of nearly empty space. It's a powerful emitter of radio waves, and has a rotating neutron star pulsar at its center; the remains of the star that exploded.
