Supernova Remnants (SNR’s)

Click to go to the only supernova remnant in Messier’s catalog,

the first object, the Crab Nebula M1.

M1 is also shown in the icon.

When a star explodes in a supernova explosion, it depends on its type

what exactly remains. But anyway, the offbursted gaseous remainders

will form a rapidly expanding and slowly fading cloud, a domain of an

extreme kind of physics. Depending on the type of the supernova, there

may be a central remnant in the form of a neutron star.

Although the Crab nebula is the only Messier SNR, and one of few

Milky Way galaxy, other supernovae have

appeared in Messier galaxies (see our table),

and produced SNRs. These special kind of nebulae can be observed in some

cases, e.g. the remnant of the

The knowledge of the nature of the supernova phenomenon, and the name

“supernova”, goes back to Walter Baade and Fritz Zwicky,

who studied Novae in the early 1930s at Mt. Wilson Observatory.

They were especially interested, and successful, in finding extremely

bright “novae” in other galaxies, comparable to the one which had been

(S Andromedae).

Interesting resources on supernova remnants:

Supernova resources:

Last Modification: 25 Jan 1998, 16:25 MET