Hubble clocks a quarter-century of Crab Nebula expansion in sharper detail

The Hubble Space Telescope revisits the Crab Nebula, 6,500 light-years away, to trace 25 years of expansion. The new high-resolution images show peripheral filaments moving outward at about 5.5 million kilometers per hour and reveal a more detailed 3D structure, with color and brightness changes tied to local temperature, density, and composition. The study, comparing with the 1999 data and complemented by multiwavelength work including Webb’s 2024 infrared observations, will help scientists better understand the ongoing aftermath of the SN 1054 explosion. The findings are published in The Astrophysical Journal.