Best Protoplanetary
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The Boomerang Nebula is a bipolar nebula residing within the Centaurus constellation. It’s recognized as the coldest known naturally occurring object at approximately 1 Kelvin. This extreme cold results from intense absorption of blue light by its central dust trap, creating a distinctive hourglass...
The Red Rectangle Nebula is a bipolar protoplanetary nebula located within the Monoceros constellation. It’s distinguished by its unique, sharply defined rectangular shape—a red emission region formed from expanding gas and dust ejected by a dying star. This structure provides valuable insight into...
The Egg Nebula, formally CRL 2688, is a stunning bipolar nebula within the Cygnus constellation. It’s notable for its distinctive egg-shaped structure formed by the interaction of stellar winds with a central protostar. This type of nebula provides valuable insights into the early stages of star for...
Viktor Sergeevich Safronov (1917-1985) was a Soviet astronomer whose 1969 work "Evolution of the Protoplanetary Cloud and Formation of the Earth and the Planets" established the modern framework for understanding planet formation through the accretion of planetesimals from a protoplanetary disk. His...
The Red Square Nebula (MWC 922) is a bipolar reflection nebula in the constellation Serpens, distinguished by its remarkably symmetric, rectangular appearance when viewed at optical wavelengths. Its red hue arises from starlight scattered by surrounding dust grains, and its structured form is though...
The Calabash Nebula, formally designated OH 231.8+4.2, is a protoplanetary nebula located in the constellation Puppis at a distance of roughly 4,200 light-years from Earth. It is also referred to as the Rotten Egg Nebula due to the unusually high concentration of sulfur compounds detected in its che...
LL Pegasi is a carbon-rich star within a prominent spiral nebula. This young, protoplanetary nebula formed due to continuous mass ejection from a binary star system. The resulting structure, characterized by distinct dust rings, offers astronomers a unique opportunity to study the processes of stell...
The Calabash Nebula, formally designated OH 231.8+4.2, is a bipolar protoplanetary nebula within the Puppis constellation. It’s notable for its distinctive shape and intense outflows of sulfur-rich gas, remnants from a dying star's outer layers. Astronomers study this object to understand the proces...
M1-92, commonly called Minkowski's Footprint, is a bipolar protoplanetary nebula in the constellation Cygnus. It consists of material expelled by a star transitioning from the asymptotic giant branch toward the planetary-nebula stage, rather than debris from a planet-forming system. Two opposing lob...
IRAS 09371+1212, the Frosty Leo Nebula, is a protoplanetary nebula in Leo distinguished by its unique, crystalline water-ice rich outflow.
The Frosty Leo Nebula, scientifically designated as IRAS 09371+1212, is a bipolar protoplanetary nebula located in the constellation Leo. It represents a brief transitional phase in stellar evolution where a dying star sheds its outer layers before becoming a white dwarf. The nebula is distinguished...
The Footprint Nebula, cataloged as M1-92, is a bipolar protoplanetary nebula in the constellation Cygnus. It consists of two opposing lobes of gas and dust surrounding an evolved central star, with reflected light helping reveal its distinctive shape. Rudolph Minkowski identified the object in 1946,...
The Red Rectangle Nebula, cataloged as HD 44179, is a distinctive protoplanetary nebula located in the constellation Monoceros. It is known for its striking, mathematically symmetrical rectangular shape and ladder-like rungs of glowing gas. These unique features were formed by periodic outflows of g...
The Westbrook Nebula, cataloged as CRL 618, is a bipolar protoplanetary nebula located in the northern constellation of Auriga. It represents a brief evolutionary phase where a dying post-asymptotic giant branch star is expelling its outer layers, shaping the surrounding gas and dust into distinct l...
A protoplanetary nebula in Cygnus notable for concentric dust shells and bright searchlight beams of light escaping through gaps, marking a red giant actively shedding mass before becoming a white dwarf.
IRAS 22036+5306 is a protoplanetary nebula located in the constellation Cassiopeia. Identified through infrared astronomical surveys, it is characterized by a distinct bipolar outflow. The nebula exhibits point-symmetric structures and high-velocity molecular jets as it transitions from an asymptoti...
Roberts 22 is a bipolar protoplanetary nebula cataloged by and named after the American astronomer Morton S. Roberts. It represents a short-lived late stage in stellar evolution where a dying star sheds its outer layers, creating a complex envelope of cosmic dust and gas. The nebula is noted among a...
A protoplanetary nebula in Sagittarius identified via IRAS infrared data, whose edge-on equatorial dust disk splits two bright reflection lobes into a hamburger-like profile.
IRAS 13208-6020 is a protoplanetary nebula in Centaurus whose Hubble Space Telescope observations revealed intricate, looped structures produced by ongoing mass loss.
IRAS 23304+6147 is a protoplanetary nebula in Cassiopeia notable for displaying the rare 21-micron dust feature, indicating unusual carbon-rich material in its envelope.
The Cotton Candy Nebula (IRAS 17150-3224) is a protoplanetary nebula notable for its distinct, fluffy-looking bipolar lobes of illuminated dust and gas.
A bipolar protoplanetary nebula in Puppis named for its unusually high sulfur compound content, with opposing gas jets expanding at over 400 km/s into the surrounding interstellar medium.
IRAS 20068+4051 is a protoplanetary nebula in Cygnus with a bipolar morphology and an asymmetric dust envelope, identified by the IRAS infrared satellite mission.
