<p>The <a href="http://mnras.oxfordjournals.org/content/457/3/3036.full">new CHIMERA instrument</a> on the Palomar Observatory’s Hale Telescope snapped this image of the <a href="http://phenomena.nationalgeographic.com/2014/04/08/crab-nebula-hid-for-centuries/">Crab Pulsar</a>, a collapsed, dead star 6,500 light-years away that spins 30 times per second and emits lighthouse-like beams of light.</p>
Celestial Lighthouse
The new CHIMERA instrument on the Palomar Observatory’s Hale Telescope snapped this image of the Crab Pulsar, a collapsed, dead star 6,500 light-years away that spins 30 times per second and emits lighthouse-like beams of light.
- Week's Best Space Pictures
Week's Best Space Pictures: A Pulsar's Technicolor Home
A massive galaxy cluster glitters, and new images highlight the sun's corona with dramatic color.
Feed your need for heavenly views of the universe with our picks of the most awe-inspiring space pictures.
This week, the moon casts an ominous shadow on the Pacific Ocean, NASA's Cassini spacecraft spots two of Saturn's moons, and a dusty disk coalesces around a distant pair of aging stars.
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