NASA has released the most detailed image ever taken of the Crab nebula at X-ray wavelengths. Scientists are calling the latest image from the Chandra X-ray observatory a spectacular show of detail never seen before.

"It will knock your socks off," said Wallace Tucker, an astrophysicist at the Harvard Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, the organization that operates the Chandra telescope.

The image was taken at a resolution similar to that achieved by the Hubble Space Telescope at optical wavelengths, but it reveals structures that are not visible when viewed in optical light.

The X-ray image shows waves radiating out from the center of the nebula, Tucker said, where a very powerful neutron star called a pulsar spins at tremendous speeds and radiates extremely high energy.