The Orion Nebula
Click on image for full size
NASA
Nebulae - The Dust of Stars
Nebulae are stardust. The gas in nebulae is used to make new
stars. Dying stars create nebulae from their gas. While stars are made
of very hot, dense gas, the gas in nebulae is cool and spread out.
Water is at least 1,000,000,000,000,000 times as dense as the gas
found in nebulae. Nebulae come in many shapes. They can be round or
ring-shaped, and some look like the wispy clouds that float through
the sky on a nice summer day.
There is lot of gas that we can't see in the
Galaxy. Something must happen for the
nebulae to reveal themselves. What happens to make nebulae glow? Some
are
stellar nurseries where new stars are born.
The young stars are extremely hot and provide a lot of energy for
lighting up nebulae. Some nebulae are created by dying stars:
supernova remnants and the planetary nebulae
surrounding
white dwarfs.
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