请输入您要查询的字词:

 

单词 planetary nebula
释义
planetary nebula

Astronomy
  • A bright cloud of glowing gas and dust surrounding a highly evolved star. A planetary nebula forms when a red giant ejects its outer layers at speeds of about 10 km/s. The ejected gas is then ionized by ultraviolet light from the hot core of the star. As mass is lost this core is progressively exposed, and it ultimately turns into a white dwarf. Planetary nebulae are typically 0.5 l.y. across, and the amount of ejected material is 0.1 solar mass or more. Because the core is so hot the gas in the nebula is highly ionized. The planetary nebula exists for up to 100 000 years, during which time a sizeable fraction of the star’s mass is returned to interstellar space. Planetary nebulae were so named because they appeared to early observers to resemble a planetary disk. In fact the detailed shapes of planetary nebulae revealed by modern telescopes cover many different types, including ring-shaped (as in the Ring Nebula), dumbbell-shaped, or irregular. The various apparent shapes may be due to the angle at which we are viewing two lobes or cylinders of gas that have been ejected in opposite directions from the central star in a bipolar outflow. Alternatively, they may reflect asymmetries either in the ejected material or in the surrounding material with which it interacts.

    http://hubblesite.org/images/news/release/2000-12

    planetary nebula http://hubblesite.org/images/news/release/1998-39


Space Exploration
  • A shell of gas thrown off by a star at the end of its life. Planetary nebulae have nothing to do with planets. They were named by German-born English astronomer William Herschel, who thought their rounded shape resembled the disc of a planet. After a star such as the Sun has expanded to become a red giant, its outer layers are ejected into space to form a planetary nebula, leaving the core as a white dwarf at the centre.


随便看

 

科学参考收录了60776条科技类词条,基本涵盖了常见科技类参考文献及英语词汇的翻译,是科学学习和研究的有利工具。

 

Copyright © 2000-2023 Sciref.net All Rights Reserved
京ICP备2021023879号 更新时间:2024/12/26 0:42:04