This is
how planetary nebulae come to be:
Not exact matches
More accurate distances between the most common type of «
planetary nebulae» and the Earth can be estimated simply with three sets of data: firstly, the size of the object on the sky taken from the latest high resolution surveys; secondly, an accurate measurement of
how bright the object is in the red hydrogen - alpha emission line; and thirdly, an estimate of the dimming toward the
nebula caused by so called interstellar - reddening.
While astronomers now believe they know
how stellar winds can sculpt a
planetary nebula, much still escapes them.
After a few hours or weeks, depending on
how super the supercomputer is, a thousand years of
planetary nebula history is waiting in the computer's memory to be studied in detail.
Finding distances to stellar explosions like
planetary nebulae and supernovae enables you to find the power needed to make the gaseous shells visible and
how much was needed to eject them at the measured speeds.
The overabundance of brown dwarfs and low - mass
planetary bodies skewing the IMF for the
nebula will surely refine these models further, and by understanding
how nearby
nebulae form stars, we can gain a better comprehension of
how their distant cousins do the same.