Deutsches Elektronen Synchrotron DESY, D-15738 Zeuthen, Germany.
Rep Prog Phys. 2014 Jun;77(6):066901. doi: 10.1088/0034-4885/77/6/066901. Epub 2014 Jun 10.
The Crab nebula and its pulsar (referred to together as 'the Crab') have historically played a central role in astrophysics. True to this legacy, several unique discoveries have been made recently. The Crab was found to emit gamma-ray pulsations up to energies of 400 GeV, beyond what was previously expected from pulsars. Strong gamma-ray flares, of durations of a few days, were discovered from within the nebula, while the source was previously expected to be stable in flux on these time scales. Here we review these intriguing and suggestive developments. In this context we give an overview of the observational properties of the Crab and our current understanding of pulsars and their nebulae.
蟹状星云及其脉冲星（合称为“蟹状星云”）在天体物理学中一直扮演着核心角色。名副其实的是，最近有几项独特的发现。蟹状星云被发现发射出高达 400GeV 的伽马射线脉冲，这超出了之前对脉冲星的预期。在星云内部发现了持续数天的强烈伽马射线耀斑，而此前人们预计该源在这些时间尺度上通量是稳定的。在这里，我们回顾这些有趣且有启发性的进展。在此背景下，我们概述了蟹状星云的观测特性以及我们目前对脉冲星及其星云的理解。
