Observation of the Crab Pulsar and Nebula with the Fermi Large Area Telescope

Abstract

The Crab Pulsar and Nebula are the remnants of the explosion of the supernova SN1054, which was observed by Chinese astronomers. Previously detected by EGRET, the Crab Pulsar and Nebula have been extensively observed in the gamma‐ray energy band by the Large Area Telescope (LAT) onboard the Fermi satellite. The data collected by the LAT during its early operation stage have allowed a detailed measurement of the fluxes and of the energy spectra of both sources. The pulsar spectrum is consistent with the EGRET measurement in the region below 1 GeV and is well described by a power law with exponential cutoff at a few GeV. The nebula spectrum is well modeled by a sum of two power laws, identified respectively as the falling edge of the synchrotron and the rising edge of the inverse Compton components, and is in agreement with the observations from Earth‐based telescopes.