Gaseous nebulae as a research area encompasses the observational, theoretical, and numerical study of ionized, atomic, and molecular gas clouds in interstellar and circumstellar environments, focusing on their physical conditions, chemical composition, and dynamical evolution. Research addresses radiative transfer, emission-line diagnostics, photoionization and shock-excitation mechanisms, and the impact of stellar feedback from massive stars and supernovae on nebular structure. It also investigates nebulae as laboratories for plasma physics, dust–gas interactions, and nucleosynthesis yields, and as probes of galactic structure, star-formation processes, and the interstellar medium across different metallicities and cosmic epochs.
This shimmering region of star-formation, a close-up of the Trifid Nebula about 5,000 light-years from Earth, was captured in intricate detail by NASA's Hubble Space Telescope. The colors in Hubble's visible light image, ...
Astronomy
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Using NASA's SPHEREx space telescope, astronomers have observed remnants of the eruption of Nova Persei 1901. As a result, they detected a bipolar molecular hydrogen shell around this nova, which may be a large planetary ...
An international team of astronomers has employed the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) to observe a complex planetary nebula known as NGC 6302. The observations, detailed in a paper published Feb. 25 on the arXiv pre-print ...
For this month's ESA/Hubble Picture of the Month, NASA/ESA's Hubble Space Telescope is joined by ESA's Euclid to create a new view of the most visually intricate remnants of a dying star: the Cat's Eye Nebula, also known ...
Astronomy
Mar 3, 2026
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This image, taken with ESO's Very Large Telescope (VLT), seems to have captured a cosmic hawk as it spans its wings. While the dark clouds in the middle of the image make up the head and body of the bird of prey, the filaments ...
Astronomy
Mar 3, 2026
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A mysterious bar-shaped cloud of iron has been discovered inside the iconic Ring Nebula by a European team led by astronomers at University College London (UCL) and Cardiff University.
Astronomy
Jan 17, 2026
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A team using the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope has uncovered a new type of astronomical object—a starless, gas-rich, dark-matter cloud that is considered a "relic" or remnant of early galaxy formation. Nicknamed "Cloud-9," ...
Astronomy
Jan 5, 2026
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NASA's Hubble Space Telescope captured an uncommon sight—the death of a low-mass star—in this image of the Calabash Nebula released on Feb. 3, 2017.
Astronomy
Dec 15, 2025
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When a gas is highly energized, its electrons get torn from the parent atoms, resulting in a plasma—the oft-forgotten fourth state of matter (along with solid, liquid, and gas). When we think of plasmas, we normally think ...
Plasma Physics
Dec 8, 2025
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In November 1572, a brilliant new star appeared in the constellation Cassiopeia, shining so brightly that it was visible during the day. Danish astronomer Tycho Brahe carefully documented this celestial phenomenon, and the ...
Astronomy
Oct 27, 2025
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