In 1054 there suddenly appeared a bright star in the sky that was described by Chinese astronomers. In fact, the stellar explosion that had caused it had happened around 6500 years before, but it took several thousand years for the light to travel the long distance to Earth.
This is a
composite image of the Crab Nebula (M1), the remnant of a supernova. The image was created by combining data from five telescopes spanning the electromagnetic spectrum from radio waves to X-rays. This means most of the colors are false colors, because they represent wavelengths of light that are invisible to our eyes.
The telescopes involved are the Karl G. Jansky Very Large Array, the Spitzer Space Telescope, the Hubble Space Telescope, the XMM-Newton Observatory, and the Chandra X-ray Observatory. We are used to seeing the iconic Hubble image of M1, but adding other wavelengths to it tells astronomers a good deal about temperature and structure that is otherwise invisible. And it makes a very appealing picture.
What would Messier think if he could see this!
Image Credit: NASA, ESA, NRAO/AUI/NSF and G. Dubner (University of Buenos Aires)