Pinwheel nebula - Misplaced Pages

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A pinwheel nebula is a nebulous region in the shape of a pinwheel.

Spiral galaxies

Main article: Spiral galaxy

The term 'Pinwheel nebula' is an antiquated misnomer used by observers before Edwin Hubble realized that many of these spiral shaped nebulae were actually 'island universes' or what we now call galaxies.

Wolf–Rayet nebulae

Main article: Wolf–Rayet nebula

Some Wolf–Rayet stars are surrounded by pinwheel nebulae. These nebulae are formed from the dust that is spewed out of a binary star system. The stellar winds of the two stars collide and form two dust lanes that spiral outward with the rotation of the system. An example of this is WR 104.

External links

"The Twisted Tale of Wolf-Rayet 104, First of the Pinwheel Nebulae" Some Wolf–Rayet stars in binaries are close enough that we can image a rotating "pinwheel nebula" showing the dust generated by colliding winds in the binary system, from aperture masking interferometry observations.
Pinwheel Galaxy from ESA/Hubble

v t e Nebulae
Visible nebula	Dark nebula Diffuse nebula Emission nebula Planetary nebula Supernova remnant Nova remnant H II region Reflection nebula Variable nebula Protoplanetary nebula
Pre-stellar nebulae	Giant molecular cloud Bok globule Evaporating gaseous globule Solar nebula
Stellar nebula	Nova remnant Protoplanetary nebula Wolf–Rayet nebula Integrated Flux Nebula
Post-stellar nebulae	Planetary nebula Supernova remnant Pulsar wind nebula Supershell
Clouds	Interstellar cloud Molecular cloud Infrared cirrus High-velocity cloud H I region
Morphology	Bipolar nebula Pinwheel nebula
Intergalactic blobs	Lyman-alpha blob
Lists	Diffuse Largest Nebulae Planetary (PNe) Protoplanetary (PPNe) Supernova remnants (SNRs)
Related	Cometary knot
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