The Crab Nebula

This colorful photo shows a ground-based image of the entire Crab Nebula, the remnant of a supernova explosion witnessed over 900 years ago.

The nebula, which is 10 light-years across, is located 7, 000 light-years away in the constellation Taurus. The green, yellow and red filaments concentrated toward the edges of the nebula are remnants of the star that were ejected into space by the explosion.