Nebula

Phil Plait Bad Astronomy Hst Ic2631 Proplyd Shadow

Being thankful: Hubble sees a baby star's shadow play

A protostar's disk casts a long shadow across the sky.

By Phil Plait 4 days ago

3D models of the Crab Nebula generated from spectra: The view as we see it from Earth (left) versus from a different angle, where the heart shape becomes more apparent. Credit: Thomas Martin, Danny Milisavljevic and Laurent Drissen

The 3D heart of the Crab Nebula

By Phil Plait 7 months ago

CK Vulpeculae is a bipolar nebula, with two expanding lobes of gas ejected from the center in a powerful event that was seen in 1670. Credit: International Gemini Observatory/NOIRLab/NSF/AURA, Travis Rector (University of Alaska Anchorage), Jen Miller (Ge

CK Vulpeculae: Something went boom but we don't know what

By Phil Plait 10 months ago

The cometary globule CG12 and its embedded star cluster NGC 5367, taken using a 50-cm Chilescope telescope. Credit: Sebastian Volmer

Turns out, getting slammed by a supernova can make you collapse. If you're a cometary globule.

By Phil Plait 10 months ago

GALEX ultraviolet observations of the Blue Ring Nebula (in blue) together with ground-based observations in visible light (pink) finally reveal the true nature of this object: Two stars that merged into one, blowing out a wind shaped like two thick conica

What created this eerie blue eye in space? Stellar cannibalism.

By Phil Plait 1 year ago

Hubble’s view of the planetary nebula NGC 7662. Credit: NASA, ESA, and A. Hajian (University of Waterloo)

Memories of the Blue Snowball

By Phil Plait 1 year ago

Nebula Hero

ESO telescope nets this fluttering cosmic butterfly image in never-seen detail

By Jeff Spry 1 year ago

The Vela supernova remnant is the shredded remains of a star that blew up 11,000 years ago, seen against a backdrop of gas clouds in the Milky Way. Credit: Robert Gendler and Roberto Colombari / DSS

A supernova that left chaos in its wake

By Phil Plait 1 year ago

The vast nebula NGC 6357, cranking out thousands of stars in three separate regions. Credit: X-ray: NASA/CXC/PSU/L.Townsley et al; Optical: UKST; Infrared: NASA/JPL-Caltech

Better take a look at NGC 6357 now before its stars blow up and disintegrate it

By Phil Plait 1 year ago

Close-up of a star-forming nebula shows a young star buried in gas and dust shooting twin beams of matter from its poles.

Hubble's gorgeous 'Mystic Mountain' remastered

By Phil Plait 1 year ago