Explore: Planetary Nebulae

term "planetary nebula" is a misnomer because they are unrelated to planets. The term originates from the planet-like round shape of these nebulae observed

Planetary nebulae are a type of emission nebula created from the ejected gas of dying red giant stars. The following is an incomplete list of known planetary

remaining material is then thought to form planets and other planetary system objects. Most nebulae are of vast size; some are hundreds of light-years in diameter

Mayall-Cannon (planetary nebulae) Mz — Menzel (planetary nebulae) N — (for example: N 164 nebula in Dorado) Na — Nassau (planetary nebulae) Naillon — (telescopic

characteristic of fluorescing glowing gases. Huggins concluded that most planetary nebulae were not composed of unresolved stars, as had been previously suspected

Abell Catalog of Planetary Nebulae was created in 1966 by George O. Abell and was composed of 86 entries thought to be planetary nebulae. The objects were

objects New General Catalogue List of planetary nebulae Kerber, F.; et al. (September 2003), "Galactic Planetary Nebulae and their central stars. I. An accurate

of the smallest planetary nebulae and by far the most extensively studied. NGC 7027 is one of the visually brightest planetary nebulae. In a telescope

separate group of stars with WR spectra are the central stars of planetary nebulae (CSPNe), post-asymptotic giant branch stars that were similar to the

the English amateur astronomer William Huggins, demonstrating that planetary nebulae were gaseous and not stellar in nature. Structurally, the object has