Editing Taurus (constellation) (section)

===Deep-sky objects===

In the northern part of the constellation to the northeast of the Pleiades lies the Crystal Ball Nebula, known by its catalogue designation of [[NGC 1514]]. This [[planetary nebula]] is of historical interest following its discovery by German-born English astronomer [[William Herschel]] in 1790. Prior to that time, astronomers had assumed that [[nebula]]e were simply unresolved groups of stars. However, Herschel could clearly resolve a star at the center of the nebula that was surrounded by a nebulous cloud of some type. In 1864, English astronomer [[William Huggins]] used the spectrum of this nebula to deduce that the nebula is a luminous gas, rather than stars.{{sfn|O'Meara|2011|pp=74–77}}

{| class="wikitable" style="float: left; margin-left: 0; margin-right: 1em;"
|+ Brightest NGC objects in Taurus<!-- Magnitude 11 or brighter --><ref name="Gilmour2012"/>
|-
! [[NGC objects|Identifier]] || [[Visual magnitude|Mag.]] || [[Astronomical objects|Object type]]
|-
| [[NGC 1514]] ||style="text-align:right;"| 10.9 || [[planetary nebula]]
|-
| [[NGC 1647]] ||style="text-align:right;"| 6.4 || [[open cluster]]
|-
| [[NGC 1746]] ||style="text-align:right;"| 6 || [[Asterism (astronomy)|asterism]]{{sfn|O'Meara|2011|p=84}}
|-
| [[NGC 1817]] ||style="text-align:right;"| 7.7 || open cluster
|-
| [[NGC 1952]] ||style="text-align:right;"| 8.4 || [[supernova remnant]] (M1)
|}

North-west of ζ Tauri by 1.15 degrees is the [[Crab Nebula]] (M1), a supernova remnant. This expanding [[nebula]] was created by a [[Type II supernova]] explosion, which was seen from Earth on July 4, 1054. It was bright enough to be observed during the day and is mentioned in Chinese historical texts. At its peak, the supernova reached magnitude −4, but the nebula is currently magnitude 8.4 and requires a telescope to observe.<ref name="hawkins2002" /><ref name="covington2002" /> [[indigenous peoples of the Americas|North American peoples]] also observed the supernova, as evidenced from a painting on a New Mexican canyon and various pieces of pottery that depict the event. However, the remnant itself was not discovered until 1731, when [[John Bevis]] found it.<ref name="objects" />

[[File:Nebula in Taurus.jpg|thumb|[[IRAS 05437+2502]], a nebula]]

This constellation includes part of the Taurus-Auriga complex, or Taurus dark clouds, a star-forming region containing sparse, filamentary clouds of gas and dust. This spans a diameter of {{Convert|98|ly|pc|abbr=off|lk=on}} and contains 35,000&nbsp;[[solar mass]]es of material, which is both larger and less massive than the [[Orion Nebula]].<ref name="schulz2005" /> At a distance of {{Convert|490|ly|pc|abbr=off}}, this is one of the nearest active star forming regions.<ref name="babu_feigelson1996" /> Located in this region, about 10° to the northeast of Aldebaran, is an asterism [[NGC 1746]] spanning a width of 45 [[arcminute]]s.{{sfn|O'Meara|2011|p=84}}