The Crab Pulsar, a city-sized, magnetize neutron starspinning 30 times a second,lies at the center of this composite image of the inner region ofthe well-known CrabNebula.The spectacular picture combines optical data (red) from th Hubble Space Telescopeand x-ray images (blue) from th ChandraObservatory, also used in the popula CrabPulsar movies.Like cosmicdynamo the pulsar powers the x-rayand optical emission from the nebula, acceleratingcharged particles and producing the eerie, glowing x-ray jets.Ring-like structures are x-ray emitting regions wherethe high energy particles slam into the nebular material.The innermost ring is about a light-year across.With more mass tha theSun and the density of a atomic nucleus,the spinning pulsar is the collapsed core of a massive starthat exploded, while the nebula is theexpanding remnant of the star's outer layers.The supernova explosion was witnessed i the year 1054.
