Gamma-ray flares in the Crab Nebula: A case of relativistic reconnection?a)

Who can resist such a beautiful cartoon?

      The Crab Nebula, like many parts of the plasma universe, flares up on occasion. For solar mugwumps, this celebrated supernova remnant (M1 in the Messier catalog) still has many highly nonthermal signatures even a millennium later, such as flares involving particles with PeV energies and exotica such as "pair plasmas." This may not sound very solar, but just like in the solar case, these Crab flares can produce gamma rays. Probably the similarity stops there, but... will you just look at that suggestion of magnetic reconnection as a part of the process! In this case the authors have wisely not tried to represent the reconnecting magnetic fields with much fidelity, but the artwork is elegant.