See Crab Nebula Expansion over 25 Years
Video Player
Video Versions
Produced by the Space Telescope Science Institute’s Office of Public Outreach in collaboration with NASA’s Universe of Learning partners: Caltech/IPAC, Center for Astrophysics | Harvard & Smithsonian, and NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory.
Video imagery:
- Hubble 2024 image of the Crab Nebula: NASA, ESA, STScI, William Blair (JHU); Image Processing: Joseph DePasquale (STScI)
- Video comparing Hubble’s 1999 and 2024 images of the Crab Nebula: NASA, ESA, STScI, William Blair (JHU); Video: Joseph DePasquale (STScI)
- Webb 2024 image of the Crab Nebula: Image: NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI, Tea Temim (Princeton University); Image Processing: Joseph DePasquale (STScI)
Music from Music for Non-Profits
(DESCRIPTION)
[00:00:00.00] Vibrant photos of stars, planets and various celestial bodies scroll past. A title: News From the Universe.
(SPEECH)
[00:00:00.17] [COSMIC MUSIC]
(DESCRIPTION)
[00:00:10.97] Text: April 23, 2026, See Crab Nebula expansion over 25 years.
[00:00:17.10] A photo captures the Crab Nebula.
[00:00:19.51] Text: NASA's Hubble Space Telescope has captured an intricately detailed image of the Crab Nebula, 25 years after its first portrait of the supernova remnant.
[00:00:29.11] It includes rainbow striations of light.
[00:00:31.78] Text: The outward expansion of the nebula is clear when comparing Hubble's 1999 and 2024 images.
[00:00:39.19] In comparison photos from 1999 to 2024, the nebula's spread widens. Text: The filaments are moving about 3.4 million miles per hour.
(SPEECH)
[00:00:40.77]
(DESCRIPTION)
[00:00:49.39] The expansion is driven by an energetic wind of charged particles from the pulsar at the heart of the nebula. The pulsar is the rapidly rotating, extremely dense core of the star that went supernova.
[00:01:00.42] The 1999 and 2024 photos flash back and forth.
[00:01:04.61] Text: The new Hubble data can be compared with recent images from other telescopes that observed the Crab in different wavelengths of light, like this 2024 image from NASA's James Webb Space Telescope.
[00:01:16.83] The James Webb Space Telescope photo of the Crab Nebula displays bands of gold, faint red and green surrounding a bluish expanse.
[00:01:23.79] Text: Together, different telescopes and observations over time give scientists a more complete picture of the Crab Nebula's development and how the universe works overall.
[00:01:33.28] This news was brought to you in part by the Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore, Maryland.