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Glite Dictionary
Crab Nebula

Crab Nebula

2 8.2
The remains of a star explosion that people first saw in 1054 in the constellation Taurus
  • noun
  • /kræb ˈnɛbjʊlə/
translation icon : Nebulosa del Cangrejo
  • PHOTO (BLACK & WHITE): This image of the north-central portion of the Crab Nebula shows "knots" of argon-emitting gas aligned in arcs to the north and south (marked with crosses) of the pulsar (marked "P").

Examples

  • PHOTO (BLACK & WHITE): This Hubble Space Telescope image, taken after the repair mission, shows the region of the Crab Nebula close in to the pulsar, the brighter of the two points of light near the center of the image.

    Academic text (1994)

  • In the case of the Crab Nebula, the "light" synchrotron nebula is trying to push on the "heavy" ejecta, which breaks into small, dense clumps that the synchrotron nebula can flow around.

    Academic text (1994)

  • The pulsar in the Crab Nebula is a far more powerful source of X-rays than of radio waves.

    Academic text (1991)

  • A similar halo appears in visible light around the pulsar at the center of the much younger Crab Nebula.

    Academic text (1994)

  • That's the Crab Nebula.

    Heartbreakers (2001)

  • The youngest pulsar known in the Crab Nebula is the remnant of the supernova observed by Chinese astronomers about 950 years ago.

    Academic text (1991)

  • PHOTO (BLACK & WHITE): Some of the complex filaments of material ejected from the supernova explosion that created the Crab Nebula are visible in this Hubble Space Telescope image taken after the repair mission.

    Academic text (1994)

  • The Crab Nebula, the gaseous remnant left behind by a supernova explosion recorded by Chinese astronomers in 1054 A.D., is one of the most extensively studied objects in the sky.

    Academic text (1994)

  • The Crab Nebula, located in Taurus, is the remnant of a supernova explosion observed in 1054 AD.

  • Astronomers study the Crab Nebula to learn more about the life cycle of stars and supernovae.

Surface Forms

Crab Nebula singular

Morphology

Crab + nebula

The phrase is directly compositional: 'nebula' (an interstellar cloud) modified by 'Crab' indicates which nebula, so a learner who knows both words will infer it is a nebula associated with the Crab (constellation or appearance). This is a proper-name pattern common across languages, so the overall meaning is immediately derivable from the constituents.

Etymology

Crab Nebula may come from old drawings that looked like a crab. One popular story says the astronomer William Parsons drew the object with a crab-like shape, and that picture helped the name stick, so today Crab Nebula means the 'bright cloud' left by a star's explosion.