Astronomy Picture of the Day -- M1: The Crab Nebula from Hubble

NASA ^ | December 25, 2011 | (see photo credit)

[SunkenCiv]

Explanation: This is the mess that is left when a star explodes. The Crab Nebula, the result of a supernova seen in 1054 AD, is filled with mysterious filaments. The filaments are not only tremendously complex, but appear to have less mass than expelled in the original supernova and a higher speed than expected from a free explosion. The above image, taken by the Hubble Space Telescope, is presented in three colors chosen for scientific interest. The Crab Nebula spans about 10 light-years. In the nebula's very center lies a pulsar: a neutron star as massive as the Sun but with only the size of a small town. The Crab Pulsar rotates about 30 times each second.

[null and void]

Nicely played...

[TheOldLady]

You’re a really good sport. Phew!

[null and void]

I was pretty sure you were up to no good by post #25.

OTOH, while usually when you have to explain a joke it isn't funny, sometimes the explanation is funnier than the original joke.

I was hoping to salvage that much...

[null and void]

I can see the bear too, took a while to see the open mouth, but it does look like a bear, more so if you tilt the image a little clockwise.

Still, I prefer the frog. It’s my frog. I found it. I can’t bear to see it otherwise...

[Dysart]

Tough crowd.

[TheOldLady]

AND you're a sweetie pie to boot.

[TheOldLady]

If y'all don't mind, I don't mean to growl at you or dance around the issue but would like to pile on here.

It's definitely a frog.

[null and void]

Maybe it's a French Bear?...

[mdmathis6]

So the equatorial speed of the star’s rotation is about 460 miles a second, mildly relativistic...I’ll bet the time distortions are interesting in that star’s vicinity.

[TheOldLady]

Maybe a cheesy compromise would be a Parisian bear, but all I see is a pretty bleu Frog.

[Ransomed]

1054 is the year usually attributed as the beginning of the formal Great Schism. I wonder if folks wondered about that back then, as in a “signs and wonders in the sky” sort of thing. I have poked around a little and some sites have it happening in the same week. Don’t know if that’s true or not. I guess it was visable for two years or so, and you could see it during the day for 23 days.

Now that would be some serious pre-planning, like 6,500 years!

Freegards

[JoeProBono]

[calex59]

Nope, both Frog and bear are in there, but in order to go along and not be trampled by frog loving FReepers I have conceded that we re-name it the Frog Nebula.

[TheOldLady]

That's very nice, but no one's going to trample you, and we already have Ursae Major and Minor.

Happy Boxing Day!

[SunkenCiv]

It’s been moving outward for hundreds of years, and at very high velocities, but the different materials have different masses; the lighter stuff is moving faster.