Hubble’s Inside The Image: Crab Nebula

he Hubble Space Telescope has taken over 1.5 million observations over the years. One of them is the breathtaking Crab Nebula.

With an apparent magnitude of 8.4 and located 6,500 light-years from Earth in the constellation Taurus, the Crab Nebula can be spotted with a small telescope and is best observed in January. The nebula was discovered by English astronomer John Bevis in 1731, and later observed by Charles Messier who mistook it for Halley’s Comet. Messier’s observation of the nebula inspired him to create a catalog of celestial objects that might be mistaken for comets.