The Crab Nebula M1 in the Messier Catalogue is a supernova remnant with an important pulsar at its centre. Here we look at it through Nik Szymanek's telescope and the professionals discuss what's going on in this "realtime explosion", unfolding in space on an epic timescale.

With Meghan Gray and Paul Crowther and Mike Merrifield

Images thanks to Nasa, ESA, etc... And Adam Block (Mount Lemmon SkyCenter/University of Arizona): http://caelumobservatory.com/ Michael Siniscalchi: http://www.helixgate.net/ Bob Fera: http://www.feraphotography.com/ Philip Perkins: www.astrocruise.com/ Paul Haese: http://paulhaese.net/ Nik Szymanek: http://ccdland.net And to The Royal Society.

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Videos by Brady Haran

Additional video editing by Stephen Slater