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Reflection nebulae themselves do not emit significant amounts of visible light, but are near stars and reflect light from them. [25] Similar nebulae not illuminated by stars do not exhibit visible radiation, but may be detected as opaque clouds blocking light from luminous objects behind them; they are called dark nebulae. [25]
The Solar System has its own interplanetary dust cloud, as do extrasolar systems. There are different types of nebulae with different physical causes and processes: diffuse nebula, infrared (IR) reflection nebula, supernova remnant, molecular cloud, HII regions, photodissociation regions, and dark nebula.
A typical planetary nebula is roughly one light year across, and consists of extremely rarefied gas, with a density generally from 100 to 10,000 particles per cm 3. [40] (The Earth's atmosphere, by comparison, contains 2.5 × 10 19 particles per cm 3.) Young planetary nebulae have the highest densities, sometimes as high as 10 6 particles per ...
Representative lifetimes of stars as a function of their masses The change in size with time of a Sun-like star Artist's depiction of the life cycle of a Sun-like star, starting as a main-sequence star at lower left then expanding through the subgiant and giant phases, until its outer envelope is expelled to form a planetary nebula at upper right Chart of stellar evolution
The W51 nebula in Aquila - one of the largest star factories in the Milky Way (August 25, 2020). Star formation is the process by which dense regions within molecular clouds in interstellar space, sometimes referred to as "stellar nurseries" or "star-forming regions", collapse and form stars. [1]
Planetary nebulae, represented here by the Ring Nebula, are examples of emission nebulae. An emission nebula is a nebula formed of ionized gases that emit light of various wavelengths. The most common source of ionization is high-energy ultraviolet photons emitted from a nearby hot star .
Nebulae become visible if the gas glows, or if the cloud reflects starlight or obscures light from more distant objects. The catalogues that it may refer to: Catalogue des nébuleuses et des amas d'étoiles (Messier "M" catalogue) first published 1771; Catalogue of Nebulae and Clusters of Stars (William Herschel 'CN'/"H" catalogue) first ...
The Ring Nebula (also catalogued as Messier 57, M57 and NGC 6720) is a planetary nebula in the northern constellation of Lyra. [4] C] Such a nebula is formed when a star, during the last stages of its evolution before becoming a white dwarf , expels a vast luminous envelope of ionized gas into the surrounding interstellar space .