Emission nebulae are glowing clouds of interstellar gas excited by hot, young stars within their folds. Because much of the emitted light is caused by intense ultraviolet radiation stripping electrons ...

After a massive star dies, the energy ejected from the colossal explosion forms what is known as a nebula — a ginormous, colorful interstellar cloud of gas and dust. Two new images captured by ...

This spectacular image of the Orion Nebula, complete with its incredibly rich star-formation region, was obtained from multiple exposures using the HAWK-I infrared camera on ESO’s Very Large Telescope ...

One of the largest emission nebulae in the far northern sky can be found in IC 1396, a bright glow in Cepheus that contains several complex objects. Among them are the red supergiant star Mu Cephei; ...

A planetary nebula is an emission nebula consisting of an expanding glowing shell of ionized gas ejected during the asymptotic giant branch phase of certain types of stars late in their life. This ...

Emission nebulae are the subject of many of the most spectacular astrophotographs published in the last decade. Although there are many subcategories of nebulae, they all consist of interstellar gas ...

As we continue to break new ground in the field of cosmology, the importance of carefully categorizing the objects we see comes into focus. Part of this stems from the fact that, increasingly, we find ...

Astronomers have discovered an unusual laser emission that suggests the presence of a double star system hidden at the heart of the 'spectacular' Ant Nebula. The extremely rare phenomenon is connected ...

Many scientific terms are very specific, but the term nebula is, well, nebulous. In a very generic sense, it simply means a fuzzy thing. But there are a wide variety of astronomical objects that can ...

Hubble Telescope image of the Horsehead Nebula. Credit: T.A.Rector (NOIRLab/NSF/AURA) & Hubble Heritage Team (STScI/AURA/NASA) Nebulae are all but impossible to spot in the night sky, but you'd never ...

As we continue to break new ground in the field of cosmology, the importance of carefully categorizing the objects we see comes into focus. Part of this stems from the fact that, increasingly, we find ...