The Crab Nebula, also known as Messier 1,
was the very first of 110 objects to be catalogued
by the French astronomer Charles Messier.
He mistook this nebula for a comet upon first
observation, and thus began the famous Messier
catalogue.
This colorful nebula is quite bright, and
fairly easy to spot using a moderately powerful
telescope.
It is an interesting deep sky object because
of its unique history.
Situated within the constellation Taurus,
The Crab Nebula is actually the result of
a giant supernova or exploding star that we
believe was witnessed and recorded by Chinese
and Arab astronomers on July 4, 1054 AD.
The explosion was so bright, reports indicate
that it could be seen for weeks in the daylight
hours.
Today, scientists tell us that the nebula
is expanding at a rate of almost 1,000 miles
per second.
The nebula was first discovered by the English
doctor and astronomer John Bevis in 1731 and
was placed in the Messier catalog in 1758.
The origin of its name comes from The Earl
of Rosse who observed, and made a drawing
of the nebula which looked like a crab.
The central star in M1 is a good example of
a pulsar, which emits a powerful pulse of
radiation once every 33 milliseconds.
The variety of stars that we can see and study
is simply amazing.
First Corinthians 15:41 tells us that:
“There is one glory of the sun, and another
glory of the moon, and another glory of the
stars: for one star differeth from another
star in glory.”
I’m David Rives…
Truly, The Heavens 
Declare the Glory of God.
