At the focal plane of the WIYN, this detector has a sampling scale of 0.2 arc seconds per pixel.
Image processing can reveal even more detail.
The Crab Nebula was originally given this name due to its resemblance to a crab's claw in an early sketch made in 1855 by Lord Rosse's staff astronomer R.J. Mitchell. It is the remnant of a supernova explosion in the year 1054 A.D., which was recorded in five separate accounts in the Far East, although, oddly, no western observation has survived. The nebula continues to expand and change the details of its appearance, and this is partly due to the violence of the original explosion. However, the star which exploded left behind a rotating neutron star, which continues to beam energy out into the nebula, as well as flashing with a period of only 33 milliseconds. The details of this energy input are important for our understanding both of neutron stars and of the physical conditions in the nebula, and are revealed in the patterns of filaments, their brightness and colors, and the way they change with time.