... This is the mess that is left when a star explodes. The Crab Nebula is so energetic that it glows in every kind of light known. ... In a report released yesterday and soon to be published in Nature, astronomers have imaged an interesting distant patch of sky with the orbiting Hubble Space Telescope. ... Sirius: The Brightest Star in the Night . ... As Sirius is 8.7 light years distant, it is not the closest star system -- the Alpha Centauri system holds this distinction. ...