23. The Crab Nebula – a painting by Sumita

Way back in 1054 Chinese astronomers recorded a supernova (a cataclysmic explosion of a dying star). They recorded that for three weeks this star was visible even in daylight as bright as a full moon. Till date the stellar material flung out is visible through telescopes and even binoculars, and is called the Crab Nebula. It has become a spinning neutron star, a pulsar, spinning 30 times per second. Supernovae are giant clouds of gas (hydrogen and helium) and dust. A disturbance due to, say, an explosion in a nearby star can bring the spinning particles closer and closer till gravitational attraction makes them clump together and thus start the birth of a new star. So a star dies and many others are born! One of the super giant stars which is under keen observation and is likely to blow itself up like the Crab nebula, is the Betelgeuse in the Orion Constellation (640 light years away). It is speculated that whenever this happens (from now to any time over the next million years), it will be the most spectacular event ever seen. This is the ninth brightest Star in the night sky and the second brightest in the Orion constellation.

Supernovae are part of many legends – the three wise men who followed a bright star to the baby Jesus, is one. I saw some NASA pictures of the Crab Nebula and was totally mesmerised by its beauty and felt a great urge to paint it. Here’s my impression of the Crab Nebula on canvas with oil.