Nebulae

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The Peanut
Nebula

A nebula is a localized
conglomerate of the
gaseous and finely divided
dust particles that are
spread throughout
interstellar space.

The North America

Nebula

They are frequently named after

some animal or object they
resemble.

in Cygnus

The Pelican
Nebula

They include some of the most varied

and beautiful objects to be seen in the
nights sky.

NGC7023 in
Cepheus

Before the invention of the telescope, the

term nebula, Latin for cloud, was applied
to all celestial objects of a diffuse
appearance. As a result, many objects now
known to be star clusters or galaxies were
called nebulae.

Nebulae exist
within other
galaxies as well
as in our own
Milky Way galaxy.
They are
classified as
planetary nebulae,
supernova
remnants, and
diffuse nebulae,
including
reflecting,
emission, and
dark nebulae.

Dark
nebulae
Reflection
nebulae

Emission
nebulae

For millions of years after the

big bang, the universe was
composed mainly of vast
regions of hydrogen gas.

Under gravitational attraction, clumps of gas

came together and ignited to form stars.
Much of the hydrogen is still around today,
but remains largely invisible unless
illuminated by nearby stars.

The Pleiades
(M45) in Taurus

Diffuse nebulae are widespread clouds of

interstellar matter, mainly gas and dust. They are
extremely large structures, often many lightyears wide that have no definite outline, and a
tenuous cloudlike appearance. They are either
luminous or dark.

Region near Gamma Cygnus

including IC 1318

NGC 604
Giant Stellar Nursery

NGC 604 is so large, it formed enough stars to

make a globular cluster. Many young stars from this
cloud are visible along with what is left of the initial
gas cloud. Some stars were so massive they have
already evolved and exploded into supernovae.

Tarantula
Nebula

The Tarantula Nebula in the

Large Magellanic Cloud is
another large star-formation
region, and has been creating
unusually strong episodes of
star formation every few
million years.

The majestic Lagoon Nebula is home for

many young stars and hot gas. Spanning
100 light years across while lying only
about 5000 light years distant, the
Lagoon Nebulae is so big and bright that
it can be seen without a telescope toward
the constellation of Sagittarius.

M8
The Lagoon
Nebula
NGC 6523

Inside the
Lagoon

Many bright stars are visible in an

open cluster that formed in the
nebula only a few million years ago.
A bright knot of gas and dust in the
nebula's center is known as the
Hourglass Nebula.

The Orion Nebula

M42

Bright nebulae shine as a result

of the light of neighboring stars.
They include some of the most
striking objects in the sky, such
as M42, the Great Nebula in
Orion..

M43

M43 is separated from the main

nebula by an impressive,
turbulent dark lane, known as the
Fishs Mouth.

The
Trapezium
Inside the Orion
Nebula is a bright
star cluster known as
the Trapezium,
New stellar systems
are forming there in
gigantic globs of gas
and dust known as
Proplyds.
Looking closely at
the image also
reveals that gas and
dust surrounding
some of the dimmer
stars appears to form
structures that point
away from the
brighter stars.

Emission Nebula
IC1396 in Cepheus

An emission nebula is a
nebula that glows, that is, it
emits light energy.

The California
Nebula
in Perseus

The reddish light is

produced when electrons
and protons combine,
forming hydrogen atoms.

Emission
Nebula
Excited
electrons reemit red
visible light

Bright star emits

ultra-violet light

Light passes
through cold
hydrogen gas and
ionizes it
Gas is observed
as an

Emission nebulae are formed when energetic ultraviolet

light from a very hot star excites a cloud of hydrogen gas.
The UV radiation ionizes the hydrogen, that is, it strips
electrons from the hydrogen atoms.
The free electrons re-combine with protons, forming
hydrogen and emitting red light

Emission
Nebula

AE Auriga is the bright blue

star at the center of this
image.
The incredible energy from
this hot, massive star is
energizing the surrounding
gas, causing it to glow
dramatically.

AE Aurigae
The Flaming Star

The Cats Paw

Nebula

At 5500 light years distant, the Cat's Paw is an

emission nebula with a red color that originates
from an abundance of ionized hydrogen atoms.
Alternatively known as the Bear Claw Nebula,
stars nearly ten times the mass of our Sun have
been born there in the past few million years.

The Pelican Nebula lies about 2,000 light-years

away in constellation of Cygnus, the Swan.
Within the Pelican, dark dust clouds help define the
eye and long bill, while a bright front of ionized gas
suggests the curved shape of the head and neck.

The
Pelican
Nebula

Another big bird in the sky is the

Seagull Nebula in Canis Major

IC 2177, The Seagull Nebula

Here we see the delicate and

beautiful Rosette emission
nebula

Rosette Nebula
in Monoceros

Reflection
Nebula

Star emits visible

light
Scattered
blue light
reflected from
gas and dust

If the stars are not hot enough, or

too far away to cause emissions,
their light may be reflected by dust
and seen as white or bluish
reflection nebula.
Gas is observed as a

Reflection Nebula

Reflection nebulae
vdB14/15 in
Camelopardalis

Reflection nebulae appear blue

because shorter wavelength
light blue light is scattered more
effectively than red light.

The same physical process

causes our daytime sky to
appear blue

Reflection nebula IC 348 in

Perseus

Reflection nebula
around the star
Merope

Here we see the star

Merope, one of the
Pleiades or seven
sisters. Illuminated
by its starlight are
wisps of
surrounding gas and
dust, forming a blue
reflection nebula.

Reflection nebula in the

Pleiades

A closer look reveals wispy tendrils of a

dark interstellar cloud illuminated by
Merope. Like a flashlight beam shining
off the wall of a cave, the star is
reflecting light off the surface of pitch
black clouds of gas and dust. Over the
next few thousand years, the nebula
will move on past Merope, somewhat
like a comet swinging past our Sun.

Merope

The Witch Head

reflection nebula

Rigel

This suggestively shaped reflection nebula

is associated with the bright star Rigel in
the constellation Orion.
The Witch Head Nebula glows primarily by
light reflected from Rigel, located off to the
right.

NGC 6514
Trifid Nebula
M 20

The Trifid Nebula gets its name from the three dark lanes that divide it. The Trifid is a
familiar sight and an excellent example of an emission and reflection nebula. The red
emission nebula contains a bright blue star cluster near its center. It glows red because
the ultraviolet light of the stars ionizes the hydrogen gas, which then emits the
characteristic red hydrogen-alpha light. Further out, when the radiation from these hot
young stars becomes too weak to ionize hydrogen, the gas and dust instead glow by
reflecting the original blue light.

The Cocoon
Nebula

Aborption
Emission

The Cocoon Nebula is a

strikingly beautiful nebula
located about 4,000 light
years away toward the
constellation of Cygnus.
Inside the Cocoon is a newly
developing open cluster of
stars. Like other stellar
nurseries, the Cocoon
Nebula is, at the same time,
an emission nebula, a
reflection nebula, and an
absorption nebula. The
massive star in the center of
the image provides the
Reflection
energy source for much of
the emitted and reflected
light from this nebula.

NGC 6302 lies about 4,000 lightyears away in the constellation

Scorpius

A Planetary Nebula is a slowly dying star.

This is a dramatically detailed close-up of a
dying star's nebula.

The Bug Nebula

Planetary
Nebula

As a medium
sized star ages, it
cools and
becomes a red
giant

The core of
the star
collapses to
form a white
dwarf

The outer gases

are blown off like
a bubble

The gaseous shell is called a

Planetary Nebula

A star can survive only so long as there are active nuclear reactions in its core. Soon
thereafter, gravity will win out and compress the stellar core to higher temperatures.
Eventually the core becomes a white dwarf. These high temperatures somehow cause
the expulsion of star's outer layers, creating a planetary nebula

Abell 39
Planetary nebula
in Hercules

Central white
dwarf

Sir William Herschel

Astronomers call such an object a planetary nebula,

because its round shape resembles that of a planet when
viewed with a small telescope. This name was coined by
William Hershel and is not connected in any way with the
formation of planetary systems. Planetary nebula quickly
expand and fade while their matter is spread in the
interstellar surroundings.

Little Ghost
Planetary Nebula

This pretty planetary nebula, cataloged as NGC 6369, was discovered by William
Herschel as he used a telescope to explore the medicinal constellation Ophiucus.
Round and planet-shaped, the nebula is also relatively faint and has acquired the
popular name of Little Ghost Nebula.

The Cats Eye

Nebula

The Cat's Eye Nebula is one of

the best known and most
complex planetary nebulae
known. In fact, the features
seen in the Cat's Eye lead
astronomers to suspect the
bright central object may
actually be a binary star
system.
It is surrounded by an
enormous but extremely faint
halo of gaseous material, not
visible in this image. Only
recently have some planetaries
been found to have halos,
formed of material shrugged
off during earlier active
episodes in the star's evolution

M27
The Dumbell Nebula

A more prominant halo is seen surrounding the Dumbbell Nebula, named for the
elongated shape, like a bar with weights on each end. This deep image of the bright
planetary nebula does reveal the Dumbell's central star though, and an array of
foreground and background stars toward the sly constellation Vulpecula. The
Dumbbell Nebula is about 1,200 light-years away.

A Light
Echo

This image shows an expanding halo of light around a distant star, named Monocerotis
V838 . The illumination of interstellar dust comes from the red supergiant star at the
middle of the image, which gave off a flashbulb-like pulse of light two years ago. The
image shows swirls or eddies in the dusty cloud, probably caused by turbulence in the
dust and gas around the star as they slowly expand away.

IC 4406
The Retina Nebula
A dying star,

A dying star, IC 4406, dubbed the "Retina Nebula" is a doughnut shaped planetary
nebula seen from its side. Like many other planetary nebulae, it exhibits a high
degree of symmetry; the left and right halves of the image are nearly mirror images of
the other. This side view allows us to see the intricate tendrils of dust that have been
compared to the eye's retina.

The Eskimo Nebula

in the constellation of Gemini

Planetary nebulae can take a

wide variety of shapes.

M2-9
a butterfly Planetary
Nebula

Most show a distinctive and well marked symmetry. This

can vary from more or less spherical, to doughnut-like
annuli or to bi-polar, butterfly-like objects.

IC 418: The "Spirograph"

Nebula

Planetary nebulae also usually

have well-defined boundaries,
sometimes even a shell-like
structure.

NGC 1360
Diffuse
Planetary
Nebula

For reasons that are not understood, NGC 1360 defies

all these conventions, yet its colour still clearly
identifies it as a planetary nebula. The green hue is
oxygen, excited by the hot central star.

M57 The Ring Nebula

in Lyra

95% of all stars that we see

in our own galaxy, the Milky
Way, will ultimately become
"planetary nebulae.

The Boomerang Nebula

is believed to be a star or stellar system evolving toward the planetary
nebula phase.

At any given instant more than

10,000 nebulae are visible in some
stage of their evolution.

The Blue Snowball

Each nebula leaves behind a tiny blue

white dwarf. Over the course of billions
of years, the "white" dwarves fade to a
dull red ember.

NGC 2440
Planetary Nebula

The planetary nebula designated NGC 2440, contains one of the hottest white dwarf stars
known. The white dwarf can be seen as the bright dot near the photo's center.
Our Sun will eventually become a "white dwarf, but not for another 5 billion years

The Southern Ring

Nebula
White dwarf

Nicknamed the Eight-Burst or Southern Ring Nebula, the glowing gas originated in the
outer layers of a star like our Sun. It's the dim star, not the bright one, near the center of
NGC 3132 that created this odd but beautiful planetary nebula.

Supernova
Remnant
IC 443

Stars which are considerably

more massive than our Sun
would probably not evolve
quietly into a white dwarf.

Supernova
Remnants

The core of the star

collapses to form a
pulsating neutron star

As a massive star
ages, it cools and
becomes a
supergiant

The outer atmosphere

is blown off in a huge
explosion called a
supernova

The ashes of the supernova are

called Remnants

When coming to age, they explode in a most violent detonation which flashes to a
luminosity of up to 10 billion times that of the sun. These are called type II supernova
and eject a great part of their stellar matter into a violently expanding shell.
Alternatively, in-falling matter on a white dwarf star can cause it to explode as a
supernova of type I.
The nebulous ejecta of supernovae of either type are called supernova remnants.

NGC 1952
Crab Nebula
M1

The Crab Nebula is the

remnant of a type II
supernova explosion in
the year 1054 A.D., which
was recorded in five
separate accounts from
Chinese astronomers in
the Far East.
At the center of the Crab
is a pulsar, the neutron
star that remains from the
original star.
Neutron stars are rapidly
rotating objects, just a few
kilometers in diameter but
with the mass of the Sun.
The Crab pulsar rotates
30 times per second,
while some pulsars spin
ten times faster.

The Crab Nebula is the only supernova remnant in Messier's

catalog and is the first object listed, designated M1. Charles
Messier found this nebula while hunting for comets. When he
noticed that, unlike a comet, it didn't move, he decided to create
his now famous catalog. The gas is expanding so fast that we can
see actual changes by comparing new photographs with those
taken early in this century.
Charles Messier
Nebulae in the Messier Catalogue
Supernova Remnants
M1 The Crab Nebula
Planetary Nebulae
M27 The Dumbell Nebula
M57 The Ring Nebula
M76 The Little Dumbell, Cork, or Butterfly Nebula
M97 The Owl Nebula
Diffuse Nebulae
M8
The Lagoon Nebula
M17 The Omega Nebula
M20 The Trifid Nebula
M42 The Orion Nebula
M43 de Mairans Nebula
M 78 A diffuse reflection nebula

Jellyfish Nebula

The Jellyfish Nebula is the brighter arcing ridge of emission

with dangling tentacles just right of center. Here, the cosmic
jellyfish is seen to be part of bubble-shaped supernova remnant
IC 443, the expanding debris cloud from an exploded star some
5,000 light-years away. It is known to harbor a neutron star, the
collapsed core of the massive star that exploded over 30,000
years ago.

The Gum Nebula

Because the Gum Nebula is the
closest supernova remnant, it is
actually harder to see. Spanning 40
degrees across the sky, the nebula is
so large and faint it is easily lost in
the din of a bright and complex
background.
The remnant lies in the direction of
the constellations of Puppis and Vela.
Oddly, much remains unknown about
the Gum Nebula, including the timing
and even number of supernova
explosions that formed it.

Cassiopeia A
(Cas A)
Supernova Remnant.

It takes light ten years to cross the gas shell of the Cas A supernova remnant, which
is 10,000 light-years distant. This is the complex shell of a star seen to explode 300
years ago, and is helping astronomers to understand how that star exploded. Most
of the elements that make up people and planets were produced in similar
supernova explosions.

Supernova
1987A

Bright stars don't last very long. A bright star similar to others in this field
exploded in a spectacular supernova that was witnessed on Earth in 1987. The
result is visible today as unusual rings and glowing gas. The explosion
originated from a bright massive star that ran out of nuclear fuel. SN1987A
occurred in the Large Magellanic Cloud, a satellite galaxy only 150,000 light
years from our Milky Way Galaxy. The rings of SN1987A are currently excited by
light from the initial explosion.

The shadow or silhouette is called an

Absorption or
Dark Nebula

Absorption or Dark Nebula

It passes through
a cloud of
intervening dust or
gas

Light is emitted
from a star, galaxy
or bright nebula

Patches of
light are
obscured

Dark or absorption nebulae are clouds of dust and cool gas that are visible only
because they block off the light of stars and nebulae beyond. Their gas component
can be seen as absorption spectra in the light of background stars, while their dust
component is indicated by absorbing and reddening background light.

Although no dark nebulae are listed in Messier's catalog,

some of these objects are quite conspicuous.

Pipe
Nebula

The Coal Sack

Nebula

They range in size from

minute spherical globules
through larger features like
the Coal-Sack and the
Horsehead nebulae

Snake Nebula
The dark winding lanes visible in part of the
constellation of Ophiuchus belong to the Snake
Nebula, a series of dark absorption clouds.
Interstellar dust grains - composed predominantly of
carbon - absorb visible starlight and reradiate much
of it in the infrared. This absorption causes stars
behind the clouds to be obscured from view, hence
the appearance of starless voids on the sky.

Horsehead nebula
Absorption Nebulae

Located in the constellation of Orion, the Hunter, the Horsehead is part of a

dense cloud of gas in front of an active star-forming nebula known as IC434.
The nebulosity of the Horsehead is believed to be excited by the bright star
Sigma Orionis, which is located above the top of the image. The Horsehead is
located about 1,600 light-years away from Earth.

M16
The Eagle
Nebula

Here we see a young cluster of

stars which formed about 2 million
years ago, illuminating a cloud of
hydrogen gas. The gas is also
dusty, and in places prevents
starlight from reaching the gas and
making it glow. Many of the dusty
clouds are edged with bright rims
which indicate the direction of the
exciting stars and point to the
cluster as the energising source.

The columns are called Evaporating Gaseous

Globules because the ultraviolet light boils
off some of the hydrogen gas, shaping the
nebula in a process called photoevaporation. The biggest column is about 1
light-year tall.

M16
The Eagle
Nebula

Tumultuous clouds of the Carina Nebula,

8000 light-years away, glow in the southern
sky. Dramatic dark dust knots and complex
features are sculpted by the winds and
radiation of Carina's massive and energetic
stars.

The Carina
Nebula

M17 The Omega

Nebula

Sculpted by stellar winds and radiation, these

fantastic, undulating shapes lie within the stellar
nursery known as M17, the Omega Nebula, some
5,500 light-years away in the nebula-rich
constellation Sagittarius. The lumpy features in the
dense cold gas and dust are illuminated by stars off
the upper left of the image and may themselves
represent sites of future star formation

Here we see the bow shock around

the very young star, LL Ori, within the
intense star-forming region of the
Great Orion Nebula. Named for the
crescent-shaped wave made by a ship
as it moves through water, a bow
shock can be created in space when
two streams of gas collide.
LL Ori emits a vigorous solar wind, a
stream of charged particles moving
rapidly outward from the star.
The material in the fast wind collides
with slow-moving gas evaporating
away from the center of the Orion
Nebula, which is located to the lower
right.
The surface where the two winds
collide is the crescent-shaped bow
shock seen in the image

A BOW SHOCK
near a young star

Pelican Nebula
Ionization Front

This image shows the clouds of gas and dust next to the
neck and body of the Pelican Nebula. It reveals many
shockwaves, evidence for powerful outflows from newly
formed stars embedded within the molecular clouds that
rim the nebula.

We will end now by looking at some of the

stranger nebulae that are much harder to
explain.

The Elephant
Trunk Nebula
Known to some as the Elephant's
Trunk Nebula, parts of gas and
dust clouds of this star formation
region may appear to take on
foreboding forms. The only real
monster here, however, is a
bright young star eating away the
dust of the dark cometary
globule. Jets and winds of
particles emitted from this star
are also pushing away ambient
gas and dust.

NGC 7635, the Bubble

Nebula, is being pushed
out by the stellar wind of
massive central star. The
Bubble Nebula is about
10 light-years across
and can be seen with a
small telescope towards
the constellation of
Cassiopeia

The Bubble Nebula

in Cassiopeia

HH 32 is an example of
a "Herbig-Haro object,"
which is formed when
young stars eject jets
of material back into
interstellar space.
These jets plow into
the surrounding
nebula, producing
strong shock waves
that heat the gas and
cause it to glow.
This object is about
1,000 light-years from
Earth, and the wind
from the bright central
star has already
cleared much of the
dust out of the central
region, thus exposing
the star to direct view.

Herbig-Haro Object

Eta Carinae may be about to

explode. But no one knows
when - it may be next year, it
may be one million years
from now.
Eta Carinae's mass - about
100 times greater than our
Sun - makes it an excellent
candidate for a full blown
supernova.
Eta Carinae, in the Keyhole
Nebula, is the only star
currently thought to emit
natural LASER light.

Eta Carinae

Mz3 The
Ant Nebula

Planetary nebula Mz3 is being cast off by a star similar to our Sun. Why then would
the gas that is streaming away create an ant-shaped nebula that is not round? One
possible answer is that the star's spin and magnetic field may be channeling the
gas. Since the central star appears to be so similar to our own Sun, astronomers
hope that increased understanding of the history of this giant space and can
provide useful insight into the likely future of our own Sun and Earth.

McNeil's Nebula
This reflection nebula was discovered in
January 2004 by back-yard astronomer Jay
McNeil using his new 3-inch refracting
telescope. His amazing discovery is now
recognized as a newly visible reflection
nebula surrounding a newborn star.
McNeil's Nebula, with its illuminating young
star at the tip, does not appear in images of
the area before September 2003.

Open star
cluster M52
(NGC7654)

While the emergence of McNeil's

Nebula is a rare event to witness, it
does prove that amateurs like
ourselves, can make significant
contributions to astronomy.

Bubble emission nebula

(NGC7635).

It is not inconceivable to have a comet,

nebula or supernova named after one of
us.
I hope this thought will inspire you all
to keep searching the skies to improve
your knowledge of this ancient
absorbing science

Gerry Barrow