Image taken from the NTU telescope

This is an image of the galactic supernova remnant, M 1 (crab nebula), which was taken using the 20 inch telescope on 11 February 2008. It is 6,500 light-years away from Earth.

Stars much larger than our Sun end their lives in a giant supernova explosion, which leave behind very pretty nebula. The star that created M 1 (crab nebula) exploded in the year 1054 and was observed in both China and Arabia.

The most astonishing thing about these nebula is that without them, we would not be able to live on Earth, in fact Earth would not exist at all. This is because, all of the elements vital for us to survive are created in stars. Supernova explosions release these elements from the star and into space, which means that new stars can be formed with planets around them that have the potential for life. It is even thought that supernova explosions lead to star formation.

This image shows a colour composite of M1 (crab nebula). The red, green, and blue channel is made up of five, two minute exposures in the R band and three, two minute exposures in the B and V band.

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