A star exploded in 1054. Chinese astronomers logged a “guest star.” A thousand years later, we can still see the smoke.
The Crab Nebula, also known as Messier 1, is among the most observed objects in the sky and one of the brightest remnants of an exploded star. This Priority Mail® stamp carries the James Webb Space Telescope image of it, released by NASA on June 17, 2024 — infrared detail of filaments and glowing clouds 6,500 light-years away in Taurus. Fluffy magenta dust forms a cage-like shape; green areas are ionized sulphur; yellow-white loops mark where dust and sulphur mix. Within, a ghostly blue glow called synchrotron emission, driven by the nebula's fast-spinning central pulsar, drifts like smoke along magnetic field lines. Art director Greg Breeding chose it from NASA's collection for its colour and shape: “It fits perfectly on a stamp and will be recognizable to many.”
Some mail should feel like it came from very far away.
PERFECT FOR: parcels that deserve a good stamp, journal pages, gifts for astronomers and physics students, science-class displays, and framing beside a first telescope photograph.
