The Kinetic Energy of the Crab Nebula

1
The Kinetic Energy of the Crab Nebula

• Julia Scheevel
• Rosalie McGurk

2
(No Transcript)
3
History

• A supernova remnant
• First observed in 1054 A.D. so bright that it
  could be viewed in the daytime
• First object in Charles Messiers Catalog of
  Nebulae and Star Clusters

4
Our Goal

• To measure both the velocity and mass of the gas
  cloud to calculate the kinetic energy of the
  cloud using the formula
• KE ½mv2

5
Data
6
Analysis

• Spectrum is slightly blue-shifted (nebula is
  moving towards us) . Although this is irrelevant
  to our goal, it was interesting to see its
  direction of motion.
• Using formula
• ?f / f v / c
• the velocity towards the Earth is calculated
  to be about 12,676 m/s

7
(No Transcript)
8

• The Gaussian curve indicates gas clouds
  expansion
• The expansion velocity, calculated with
• ?f / f v / c
• is 10,035 m/s.

9

• The mass of the nebula has been calculated by
  other scientists to be 0.1 solar masses, or
  1.9891 x 1029 kg.
• Using the kinetic energy formula,
• KE ½mv2
• ½(1.9891 x 1029 kg)(10035 m/s)2
• 1.0015 x 1037 J

10
What We Learned

• Calculating the kinetic energy of any supernova
  is important in finding the distance to it
• Errors in measurements could be due to telescope
  tracking errors, interference from the Sun and
  other celestial bodies, and inaccuracies in the
  best-fit functions.

11
Bibliography

• http//www.noao.edu/outreach/aop/observers/m1.html
  
• http//www.seds.org/messier/xtra/history/CMessier.
  html
• http//www.eso.org/outreach/epr/posters/
• http//en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sun
• http//astrosun2.astro.cornell.edu/academics/cours
  es/ astro201/crab_neb.htm