Taurus (Tau) - The Bull

One of the most distinctive constellations in the sky between Aries to the west and Gemini to the east, Taurus represents the figure of a celestial bull charging toward the hunter Orion. It is easily identifiable because of its V-shape. There are few Deep Sky Objects which can be identified with Taurus. We will now look into some.

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The Hyades Cluster (Caldwell 41/Collinder 50/Melotte 25)

The Hyades is the nearest open cluster and one of the best-studied star clusters (Also the most prominent star cluster in the entire sky). Located about 153 light-years away from the Sun, it consists of a roughly spherical group of hundreds of stars sharing the same age, place of origin, chemical characteristics, and motion through space. From the perspective of observers on Earth, the Hyades Cluster appears in the constellation Taurus, where its brightest stars form a "V" shape along with the still-brighter Aldebaran. However, Aldebaran is unrelated to the Hyades, as it is located much closer to Earth and merely happens to lie along the same line of sight. This doesn’t have a M number since Charles Messier didn’t catalogue it.

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The Pleiades Cluster (M45/Seven Sisters)

Seven Sisters Named for the daughters of Atlas and Pleione in Greek mythology, the Pleiades form an obvious hook-like shape on the shoulder of Taurus. Although clearly visible with the naked eye, the group is not quite as bright as their integrated magnitude of 1.6 would suggest. Observers with average eyesight can usually count six of the “Seven Sisters,” but those with keen eyes can spot seven or even more.

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Merope Nebula (NGC 1435/Tempel’s Nebula)

Also known as Tempel’s Nebula, NGC 1435 marks the densest concentration of gas and dust in the vicinity of the Pleiades. Shining bluish-white thanks to light scattered from nearby Merope, it forms a patch of light roughly the size of the Full Moon. However, thanks to its faint apparent magnitude of around 13.0, it is only visible through large telescopes or in long photographic exposures. The Hubble Space Telescope images captures the ghostly appearance of the brightest knot within the nebula, a region given its own classification as IC 349.

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The Crab Nebula (M1)

At the heart of the Crab Nebula lies a rapidly spinning neutron star. This is the surviving core of the massive star whose explosion was seen in AD 1054, compressed to the size of a city. Because the collapsed core retains much of the angular momentum and magnetic field of its parent star, it spins at a tremendous rate and channels most of its radiation into two narrow beams aligned with its magnetic poles. As these beams sweep around the sky like a cosmic lighthouse, they are briefly pointed toward Earth, creating a flashing beacon of radio waves known as a pulsar.

An image from NASA’s Chandra X-Ray Observatory, a space-based telescope, maps high-energy radiation from the region around the Crab Pulsar. Two jets of X-ray-emitting particles can be seen clearly emerging from above and below the pulsar itself, while a series of concentric waves ripple out into a general X-ray emitting haze around the collapsed star. The X-rays are a form of synchrotron radiation, emitted by electrons traveling at high speed, and this emission cloud is thought to play a crucial role in transferring energy from the pulsar itself into the nebula. Particles falling onto the rapidly spinning stellar remnant are accelerated to high speeds and ricochet back out to energize the surrounding gas clouds.