Dead Star's Corpse Twirls in Eerie Cosmic Graveyard

The star that became the Crab Nebula went supernova centuries ago, from Earth's perspective — in 1054, it burned so brightly that skywatchers could see it shining during the day for more than three weeks, according to records from the time, and its fires were visible to the naked eye at night for two years. The excess gas stretches outward from the dead star's location, 6,500 light-years away in the constellation Taurus, and it conceals a powerful heart: a neutron star with the sun's mass