Jaw Dropping! Crab Nebula's Powerful Beams Shock Astronomers

Originally posted by Sentience365
reply to post by sirhc0329

 

The contents of the universe never cease to amaze, never. What celestial children we really are, we know so little about this place in which we live.

And yet we, including folks here on ATS, pretend to know SOOOOO much, constantly making arrogantly bold statements about what is and is not possible in the universe, including the notion that "God couldn't possibly exist."
Whether one does or does not believe in God, its stupidly arrogant to attempt to dictate what can and cannot be when we can barely leave our planet without serious strain. (by "strain" I mean serious resource investment, planning and involvement)

Everyone should sit back and realize we don't really know ####, we just like to pretend we do because it makes us feel secure and in control of something we clearly have no control over.

Forgive the rant.

Great find! This vast universe never ceases to amaze me. Much to be discovered out there. Thanks for sharing.

Originally posted by muzzleflash

Originally posted by intrptr

Originally posted by sirhc0329


Has anyone ever viewed this? Through a telescope?

Yah, I have. A Celestron 8" Schmitt - Cassegrain(spelling)
The "Crab" was one of my favorites. It is "local" and easily found.
Isn't the crab a remnant of a Super Nova seen by the Chinese a long time ago?
And that pulsar they say is in there... awesome.

Found an answer to my earlier question while finding a link for you.

At the center of the nebula lies the Crab Pulsar, a neutron star (or spinning ball of neutrons), 28–30 km across,[5] which emits pulses of radiation from gamma rays to radio waves with a spin rate of 30.2 times per second. The nebula was the first astronomical object identified with a historical supernova explosion.

The creation of the Crab Nebula corresponds to the bright SN 1054 supernova that was recorded by Chinese astronomers in 1054 AD.

crab nubula wiki

That's right, the reason why this probably appears so powerful is because the supernova occured only hundreds of years ago and was close enough to be visible during the day on Earth.

Pulsars are not really new, learned all about them in astronomy class. They're pretty easy to differentiate based on detecting their various radiofrequencies and whatnot.

The only thing that I can't remember is if a neutron star emits neutrinos at its poles. Neutrinos are gamma radiation, right?

Originally posted by Watts

Originally posted by Sentience365
reply to post by sirhc0329

 

The contents of the universe never cease to amaze, never. What celestial children we really are, we know so little about this place in which we live.

And yet we, including folks here on ATS, pretend to know SOOOOO much, constantly making arrogantly bold statements about what is and is not possible in the universe, including the notion that "God couldn't possibly exist."
Whether one does or does not believe in God, its stupidly arrogant to attempt to dictate what can and cannot be when we can barely leave our planet without serious strain. (by "strain" I mean serious resource investment, planning and involvement)

Everyone should sit back and realize we don't really know ####, we just like to pretend we do because it makes us feel secure and in control of something we clearly have no control over.

Forgive the rant.

Not a rant really and valid points made. Building something from scratch that works is enough 'security' validation, we don't need mom to tell us we tried hard but failed to feel good.

But let me point out that the atomic bomb proves we are not entirely dim about what things are and how they work. Otherwise we would still be throwing pointed rocks tied to the end of sticks for a meat dinner. No?

How can u look at that and not think of huge magnetic fields focusing all that energy, cyclotron style.

so awesome. i wonder what it would look like up close?


sigh

reply to post by Watts


A good sentiment, yet we must decide on something, otherwise no action occurs. And once decided, confidence and certainty carry us thru the inevitable challenges.

until the ideas are no longer valid/useful

then we build new ideas (still largely incorrect, but maybe closer...) that takes us thru the next bit. which usually lasts long enuf by human scales to become 'immutable'.

then like anything rigid and brittle, it shatters, making way for new thought.

cycle after cycle

each a step along the way to.... shrug.

Originally posted by Dimitri Dzengalshlevi
Neutrinos are gamma radiation, right?

Gamma rays and X-rays are electromagnetic radiation pulses, or photon wave-particles. (Along with micro, UV, visible light, etc).

Neutrinos I think are supposedly electrically neutral subatomic particles which are emitted in some types of nuclear reactions as well.
I am fairly certain that 'neutrino radiation' is in a category of it's own separate but related to photon radiation.

Alpha particles are two protons and two neutrons, and Beta particles are electrons/positrons.

Neutron radiation is another one, it's the only type of ionizing radiation that can cause objects exposed to it to become radioactive as well, through 'neutron activation'.

-from about 10 wiki searches

Originally posted by Sentience365
reply to post by sirhc0329

 

The contents of the universe never cease to amaze, never. What celestial children we really are, we know so little about this place in which we live.

I starred your post because it is a very good reminder for those who forget, that we, the people of Earth are a part of this great universe. Sometimes people forget and think of us as seperate from that but of course it cannot be.

Originally posted by muzzleflash

Originally posted by Kovenov
reply to post by sirhc0329

 

Man that is stunning photo. I probably stared at it for 10 minutes thinking, "What the heck ... "

Thanks for pointing that out.

It's an artist's rendition I believe.

Not a real photo. Sorry

You are both correct and incorrect on that. It is an artist rendition of the pulsar at the center but it is superimposed over an actual photo of the nebula.

Originally posted by muzzleflash

Originally posted by paperface
How do we know this image is even real,visible truth is visible hatred of sorts.

I think we decieve with the answers that we often try to justify with keeping open minds.

It's not real. Read the caption under it.

Artist's rendition.

Evidence can be interpreted in many ways, it is up to each person to determine how they decide to interpret it.

One major weakness that presents itself is that we often fall prey to our assumptions and are misled by our misconceptions. This is why we must realize that an interpretation of evidence is not the ultimate truth, it is merely an assumption of what the evidence may indicate or mean.

edit on 6-10-2011 by muzzleflash because: (no reason given)

Here is the caption from under the picture which clearly states that it is an artists rendition but with a photo of the crab nebula taken by hubble.

**An artist's conception of the pulsar at the center of the Crab Nebula, with a Hubble Space Telescope photo of the nebula in the background. Researchers using the VERITAS telescope array have discovered pulses of high-energy gamma rays coming from this object.
CREDIT: David A. Aguilar / NASA / ESA**

Of course it's an artist's rendition, because gamma rays are beyond our visible spectrum. If anything the burst should have a magenta hue, but it is colorless, so invisible, you can't illustrate invisible.

Originally posted by galactix
reply to post by Watts

 

A good sentiment, yet we must decide on something, otherwise no action occurs. And once decided, confidence and certainty carry us thru the inevitable challenges.

until the ideas are no longer valid/useful

then we build new ideas (still largely incorrect, but maybe closer...) that takes us thru the next bit. which usually lasts long enuf by human scales to become 'immutable'.

then like anything rigid and brittle, it shatters, making way for new thought.

cycle after cycle

each a step along the way to.... shrug.

Well said, you're right, it just irks me when I see people make absolute claims about the universe when its so obvious that we know so little relatively speaking. Its like elementary school children making an argument against something on the other side of the world even though they've never even left their home state let alone the country.

reply to post by Watts


like caterpillars contemplating pupation