The constellation Taurus lies between the constellation Orion, and the Pleiades star cluster. The Pleiades, also known as the “Seven Sisters,”is an open cluster of hot B-type stars, 444 light years away, yet easily visible to the naked eye. Time-exposure photography reveals the cluster to be surrounded by a faint nebulosity; once thought to be the remnent from the cluster’s formation, it was later determined that the cluster is drifting through an unrelated cloud in the interstellar medium. In 1054, Chinese, Japanese, Korean, and Arab astronomers noted a bright “guest star” in Taurus – a supernova so bright, it was visible during the day! In 1734, English astronomer John Bevis first observed the wispy remnants from that supernova. The Crab Nebula has been expanding rapidly outward from its progenitor star ever since that titanic explosion in 1054 – currently at a rate of 1,500 km/s. The nebula is about 6500 light-years distant, and is about 11 light-years across. The nebula’s filaments are remnants … Continue reading →