The Crab Pulsar (2) ...
Hubble Space Telescope observations illustrated in the figure below and the
animation adjacent right
have shown that the Crab Nebula undergoes substantial changes over time as
energy is fed into it by the pulsar.
For example, energy ripples outward at speeds near half
that of light in the vicinity of the pulsar (see the figure below,
the top right animation
in this frame, and the animation described below on this page).
The Hubble observations suggest that matter moves away from the pulsar in a wind moving
out from the equator, causing the observed ripples,
and in two polar jets. The jets form bright
shock fronts
where they ram into surrounding material. The jittering
points of light above and below the pulsar
in the right hand animation are thought to be these shock fronts.
Here is an
animation (292 kB streaming)
illustrating what may be responsible for the observations described above.
The movie imagines that you are close to the Crab Pulsar and slowly pull away,
allowing you to see more and more of what is going on to power the inner part of the nebula.
