A shell of gas surrounding a small, white star. The gas is usually illuminated by the star, producing a variety of colors and shapes.

expanding shell of superheated, glowing gas ejected from a dying star (red giant).

An expanding shell of glowing gas expelled by a star late in its life. Our Sun will create a planetary nebula at the end of its life.

An expanding shell of glowing gas expelled by a star late in its life. Our Sun will create a planetary nebula at the end of its life.

A bright cloud of dust and gas surrounding an old star, namely a red giant. Towards the end of its life the star ejects the dust and gas violently, losing most of its mass and becoming a white dwarf. The nebula disappears after approximately 100 000 years. They are called 'planetary' because originally astronomers thought they looked like [..]

A luminous shell of gas ejected from an old, low-mass star.

A bubble of gas surrounding a hot,dying star. The star is so hot that it makes the planetary nebula glow, which allows astronomers to see it. The star was once the core of a red giant, which ejected its outer atmosphere and created the planetary nebula. A planetary nebula has nothing to do with a planet, but through a small telescope, it looks like [..]

A planetary nebula is the nebula formed in the AGB stage of a star's life when it ejects its outer layers of gas. The exposed inner region of the star left behind is initially so hot that the intense ultraviolet radiation it emits ionises the expanding, ejected shell. This results in the cloud glowing, similar to an emission nebula. Such objec [..]

A nebula resembling a planet in shape.

Gas ejected by dying, low mass stars that appear as glowing shells.

An expanding shell of glowing gas expelled by a star late in its life. Our Sun will create a planetary nebula at the end of its life.

an expanding shell of gases shed by a hot, dying star

Cloud of gas ejected from a red giant star, the nucleus of which is left behind as a white dwarf star. The name was given by 18th century astronomers because of the visual appearance of the brightest planetary nebulae, which looked like faint planet disks through the telescopes of the era. Despite the name, there is no physical relationship between [..]