A nebula (Latin for 'cloud, fog';[1] pl.: nebulae, nebul, or nebulas[2][3][4][5]) is a distinct luminescent part of interstellar medium, which can consist of ionized, neutral, or molecular hydrogen and also cosmic dust. Nebulae are often star-forming regions, such as in the "Pillars of Creation" in the Eagle Nebula. In these regions, the formations of gas, dust, and other materials "clump" together to form denser regions, which attract further matter and eventually become dense enough to form stars. The remaining material is then thought to form planets and other planetary system objects.
Originally, the term "nebula" was used to describe any diffused astronomical object, including galaxies beyond the Milky Way. The Andromeda Galaxy, for instance, was once referred to as the Andromeda Nebula (and spiral galaxies in general as "spiral nebulae") before the true nature of galaxies was confirmed in the early 20th century by Vesto Slipher, Edwin Hubble, and others. Edwin Hubble discovered that most nebulae are associated with stars and illuminated by starlight. He also helped categorize nebulae based on the type of light spectra they produced.[8]
In 1610, Nicolas-Claude Fabri de Peiresc discovered the Orion Nebula using a telescope. This nebula was also observed by Johann Baptist Cysat in 1618. However, the first detailed study of the Orion Nebula was not performed until 1659 by Christiaan Huygens, who also believed he was the first person to discover this nebulosity. [11]
In 1715, Edmond Halley published a list of six nebulae. [14] This number steadily increased during the century, with Jean-Philippe de Cheseaux compiling a list of 20 (including eight not previously known) in 1746. From 1751 to 1753, Nicolas-Louis de Lacaille cataloged 42 nebulae from the Cape of Good Hope, most of which were previously unknown. Charles Messier then compiled a catalog of 103 "nebulae" (now called Messier objects, which included what are now known to be galaxies) by 1781; his interest was detecting comets, and these were objects that might be mistaken for them.[15]
The number of nebulae was then greatly increased by the efforts of William Herschel and his sister, Caroline Herschel. Their Catalogue of One Thousand New Nebulae and Clusters of Stars[16] was published in 1786. A second catalog of a thousand was published in 1789, and the third and final catalog of 510 appeared in 1802. During much of their work, William Herschel believed that these nebulae were merely unresolved clusters of stars. In 1790, however, he discovered a star surrounded by nebulosity and concluded that this was a true nebulosity rather than a more distant cluster.[15]
Beginning in 1864, William Huggins examined the spectra of about 70 nebulae. He found that roughly a third of them had the emission spectrum of a gas. The rest showed a continuous spectrum and were thus thought to consist of a mass of stars.[17][18] A third category was added in 1912 when Vesto Slipher showed that the spectrum of the nebula that surrounded the star Merope matched the spectra of the Pleiades open cluster. Thus, the nebula radiates by reflected star light.[19]
Slipher and Edwin Hubble continued to collect the spectra from many different nebulae, finding 29 that showed emission spectra and 33 that had the continuous spectra of star light.[18] In 1922, Hubble announced that nearly all nebulae are associated with stars and that their illumination comes from star light. He also discovered that the emission spectrum nebulae are nearly always associated with stars having spectral classifications of B or hotter (including all O-type main sequence stars), while nebulae with continuous spectra appear with cooler stars.[20] Both Hubble and Henry Norris Russell concluded that the nebulae surrounding the hotter stars are transformed in some manner.[18]
There are a variety of formation mechanisms for the different types of nebulae. Some nebulae form from gas that is already in the interstellar medium while others are produced by stars. Examples of the former case are giant molecular clouds, the coldest, densest phase of interstellar gas, which can form by the cooling and condensation of more diffuse gas. Examples of the latter case are planetary nebulae formed from material shed by a star in late stages of its stellar evolution.
Star-forming regions are a class of emission nebula associated with giant molecular clouds. These form as a molecular cloud collapses under its own weight, producing stars. Massive stars may form in the center, and their ultraviolet radiation ionizes the surrounding gas, making it visible at optical wavelengths. The region of ionized hydrogen surrounding the massive stars is known as an H II region while the shells of neutral hydrogen surrounding the H II region are known as photodissociation region. Examples of star-forming regions are the Orion Nebula, the Rosette Nebula and the Omega Nebula. Feedback from star-formation, in the form of supernova explosions of massive stars, stellar winds or ultraviolet radiation from massive stars, or outflows from low-mass stars may disrupt the cloud, destroying the nebula after several million years.
Other nebulae form as the result of supernova explosions; the death throes of massive, short-lived stars. The materials thrown off from the supernova explosion are then ionized by the energy and the compact object that its core produces. One of the best examples of this is the Crab Nebula, in Taurus. The supernova event was recorded in the year 1054 and is labeled SN 1054. The compact object that was created after the explosion lies in the center of the Crab Nebula and its core is now a neutron star.
Objects named nebulae belong to four major groups. Before their nature was understood, galaxies ("spiral nebulae") and star clusters too distant to be resolved as stars were also classified as nebulae, but no longer are.
Integrated flux nebulae are a relatively recently identified astronomical phenomenon. In contrast to the typical and well known gaseous nebulae within the plane of the Milky Way galaxy, IFNs lie beyond the main body of the galaxy.
Most nebulae can be described as diffuse nebulae, which means that they are extended and contain no well-defined boundaries.[24] Diffuse nebulae can be divided into emission nebulae, reflection nebulae and dark nebulae.
Visible light nebulae may be divided into emission nebulae, which emit spectral line radiation from excited or ionized gas (mostly ionized hydrogen);[25] they are often called H II regions, H II referring to ionized hydrogen), and reflection nebulae which are visible primarily due to the light they reflect.
Reflection nebulae themselves do not emit significant amounts of visible light, but are near stars and reflect light from them.[25] Similar nebulae not illuminated by stars do not exhibit visible radiation, but may be detected as opaque clouds blocking light from luminous objects behind them; they are called dark nebulae.[25]
Planetary nebulae were given their name by the first astronomical observers who were initially unable to distinguish them from planets, and who tended to confuse them with planets, which were of more interest to them. The Sun is expected to spawn a planetary nebula about 12 billion years after its formation.[26]
A supernova occurs when a high-mass star reaches the end of its life. When nuclear fusion in the core of the star stops, the star collapses. The gas falling inward either rebounds or gets so strongly heated that it expands outwards from the core, thus causing the star to explode.[25] The expanding shell of gas forms a supernova remnant, a special diffuse nebula.[25] Although much of the optical and X-ray emission from supernova remnants originates from ionized gas, a great amount of the radio emission is a form of non-thermal emission called synchrotron emission.[25] This emission originates from high-velocity electrons oscillating within magnetic fields.
Would it be possible to have the nebula trail a planet, as in align itself with the tailing edge of its trajectory so that a pseudo comet trail could be made? It would be interesting if minmus could have a dust trail behind it
Not to mention.. I had nooo idea about Beyond Home..I was soo certain that my next playthrough would be with RSS.. but I was worried about sorting through my now couple hundred mods for compatibility issues.. Thisss changes everything
this is so awesome! I hope that GU will integrate this cause this is cool! I also hope that the mod The World Beyond gets updated or adopted so that it can have this mod installed. The mod has a supernova nebula that in reality is a 2D jpeg that keeps facing the camera and has no depth to it.
I made a wiki page going into detail about the textures so you can take a look at that. Its currently super labour intensive to manually make a decent resolution nebula, however an editor is currently being worked on for a more intuitive workflow.
The nebulae don't work in the main menu screen, they only work in the actual game (when you're launching a rocket, or in map/tracking station view). If they still dont, then i'll need some extra info (your player.log file i.a.)
Nebula comes to us from Latin, where it means "mist" or "cloud." In its earliest English uses in the 1600s, nebula was chiefly a medical term that could refer either to a cloudy formation in urine or to a cloudy speck or film on the eye that caused vision problems. It was first applied to great interstellar clouds of gas and dust in the early 1700s. The adjective nebulous comes from the same Latin root as nebula, and it is considerably older, being first used as a synonym of cloudy or foggy as early as the 1300s. Like nebula, however, this adjective was not used in an astronomical sense until the mid-1600s.
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