Colors of the Southern Crab Nebula

Dissecting the Southern Crab Nebula

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.

About the colours

This spectrum covers 4818-7048 Angstroms on Hubble’s STIS instrument, with grisms G430M and G750M. The images are a composite of separate exposures acquired by the WFC3 instrument on the Hubble Space Telescope. Several filters were used to sample narrow wavelength ranges. The color results from assigning different hues (colors) to each monochromatic (grayscale) image associated with an individual filter. In this case, the assigned colors are: Blue: F502N Orange: F656N Green: F658N Red: F673N

About the data

The HST observations include those from program 15677 .