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Nebula

Apple NebulaBoomerang NebulaHubble's Variable Nebula
Images from Steve Bowers
From top; The Apple Nebula (a protoplanetary nebula), the Boomerang Nebula (a hypercold protoplanetary nebula) and Hubble's Variable Nebula (a reflection nebula)

There is a common saying: "a nebula only looks good from a distance". And I'd usually it is true. When you look at one through a telescope or when doing a spacewalk on a nightside they are gorgeous. But when you get closer, they fade and become transparent, and when you are in the middle of one it just looks like the stars are a bit more reddish than usual. Even the blackbody nebula out in the Perseus Arm loses its drama when you get close to it. I should know- I flew straight through it.
But there is one region of space where the saying isn't true, and that is the Orion federation. Those nebulas still look magnificent close up- draperies of red and blue, streaks as dark as the galactic nadir. And bright young stars everywhere, lighting up the gas and blowing it into piles, streamers, or bubbles. The sky at Enremdea- on one side the Orion Nebula, on the other the Cone Nebula and the Christmas Tree- is one of the most magnificent sights anywhere.

From "The Passenger"
A huge, diffuse cloud of gas and dust in interstellar space. The gas is mostly hydrogen (H2).

Bright nebulae glow with light emitted by the gas of which they are composed (emission nebulae) or by reflected starlight (reflection nebulae) or both.

Southern Coalsack
Image from Steve Bowers
The Southern Coalsack (a dark nebula); location of the Solipsist Panvirtuality complex known as the Googlehertz Virchdrome
Dark nebulae consist of clouds of gas and dust that are not illuminated, but obscure the stars and other objects behind. Dark nebulae may be somewhat more transparent to infrared light compared to visible light.

Protoplanetary Disks are condensations of gas and dust in the process of forming a star and solar system; these should not be confused with the term Protoplanetary Nebulae, which are an intermediate phase between the giant phase of a star's evolution and the Planetary nebula phase. Planetary nebulae are shells of gas ejected by dying giant stars.
t tauri star
Image from Steve Bowers
A protoplanetary disk, a rapidly rotating nebula that will eventually coalesce into planets
(The term Spiral nebula was used in antiquity to describe distant galaxies far outside the Milky Way, and is no longer used.)
 
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Development Notes
Text by M. Alan Kazlev
Extra material by Steve Bowers (april 2025)
Initially published on 09 December 2001.

 
Additional Information
a Nebula is featured in The Passenger by Anders Sandberg, available in After tranquility, tales from Orion's arm II
 
 
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