Week 9- Cosmic Nebula

In the deep silence of space many wonders can be found. There are planets, stars, galaxies and so much more. The most important thing that is up in space is cosmic nebula. Nebula comes from the Latin word meaning “cloud.” Nebulae are big cosmic clouds of dust and gas. A nebula used to mean any astronomical object, but, thanks to Edwin Hubble, we now know that nebula have to do with stars. Nebulae are the beginning of the stars. In the midst of their massive, colorful swirls, stars begin. They are the elements in which stars and planets are formed. Encompassed by the swirls of blue gas, a star begins to be formed. The turbulence in the nebula becomes sufficiently high that the gases collapse under their gravitational attraction. The material at the center of the nebula begins to heat up, which is the beginning of a star. Were it not for cosmic nebula, many of the stars that we have to stare up at each night would not be there. When referring to the stars, Pumba was not far off when he said, “Oh, gee. I always thought they were balls of gas burning billions of miles away.”
Every time I go to a planetarium, I get a thrill out of seeing the many images of cosmic nebula. The one thing that constantly seemed to distress me was that I did not know what the difference was between all the different pictures. All I knew was that they were all different shapes and colors. This was enough cause me to look it up. What I found was that there are five different types of nebula; each correlating to a different conglomeration of colors. There are emission nebula, reflection nebula, dark nebula, planetary nebula and supernova remnants. Emission nebulae are more of a red color due to the high amounts of hydrogen that reside in them, while reflection nebulae are bluer in color. Reflection nebulae are the main sites of star formations. The dark nebulae appear as just dark masses in the sky because there is too much dust to reflect any visible light. The planetary nebulae are called this because they are shaped like planets while the supernova remnants are actual remains of a star after it dies. All of the amazing nebulae are formations of the stars we stare up at every night. Many of the stars we see even contain nebulae within their formations. Nebulae are truly the most amazing cosmic creations in the night sky. So the next time you stare up into the night sky, imagine all the colorful nebula that are up in the midst of the darkness.



Works Cited
Knight, J.D. "Sea and Sky." The Sky. Copyright 1998-2009.Google. 28 Oct. 2010 .

The Web Nebulae. Arnett, Bill. 1997 Feb. 10. 28 Oct. 2010 .

Netting, Ruth. "NASA Science...For the Benefit of All." NASA Science Astrophysics. 17 Sept. 2010. National Aeronautics and Space Administration. 28 Oct. 2010 .