The nebulae – scientific journey

Here is somewhere beyond the clouds!

Hello! Are you ready to start our space journey today? good job! So go to the window very soon and look at the stars. Of course, it is possible that the weather is cloudy and you cannot find a star in the sky. There is no problem!

But have you ever asked yourself where and how the stars that twinkle in the sky every night were created?

There are places in space called nebulae. Stars are born in nebulae! Do you know what nebula means? Nebula means cloud! Nebulas are a kind of space clouds! Clouds made of Hydrogen and Helium instead of water vapor! Did you meet hydrogen and helium in school?

see previous episode: Life in space – scientific journey Episode 1

Let me explain more simply. Have you seen those balloons that go up and stick to the ceiling when you release them? They are filled with helium. Nebulae are in galaxies and there are many nebulae in space.
Some of the nebulae are visible due to the gases they contain. We call these nebulae bright nebulae.

There are different nebulae in space. For example, one of these nebulae is called Orion. Be sure to search its name on Google and see his photos! It is very very beautiful!

All the stars in the world are made of hydrogen gas. can you believe it? If you look at the sky with a telescope, you will see bright nebulae in the form of big colorful clouds! What? You ask why colorful? Because the nebula gases are ionized in space. These gases change due to heat and they emit light from themselves. The light of each gas has its own color. For example, if hydrogen is ionized, it produces green and blue light.

Many years ago, a man named Charles Messier, who was one of the great discoverers of nebulae, saw a bright nebula with his telescope. This nebula was like a round planet. He called this nebula model, planetary nebulae. If you want to see them, search on Google: Bubble Nebula or Cat’s Eye Nebula!

There is another type of nebula that is not like bright nebulas! That is, it is not hot enough to change the gases inside it. These nebulas can be seen colorful and bright from the telescope like bright nebulae. But their gases are not ionized and have not changed. So how are they bright and colorful?

Gases are colorless when they are few, but when they are much, they are colored. Like the earth’s atmosphere, which is blue in color.

OK! Let’s go to the darkest nebulae. Dark nebulae. When the gases inside a nebula become so much that the light of no star passes through, that nebula is a dark nebula. These nebulae look like black spots from telescope. You must have seen these nebulae in the sky. such as the Bernard Nebula or the Horsehead Nebula.

Now, which one of these nebulae do you think is more beautiful?

see next episode: How stars are born – scientific journey Episode 3