bipolar nebula

Also found in: Wikipedia.

bipolar nebula

A small emission or reflection nebula that appears hourglass-shaped and that represents outflow of gas in opposite directions from a central star that is often obscured by dust. Many have been detected as infrared or radio sources. A bipolar nebula can occur at two very different stages of a star's evolution. It can represent the early stages of a star's life, when it is the visible sign of the bipolar outflow of T Tauri wind from a young star. It can also result from the directional loss of matter from an evolved giant star as it begins to eject mass to become a planetary nebula.

Collins Dictionary of Astronomy © Market House Books Ltd, 2006

bipolar nebula

[bī‚pōl·ər ′neb·yə·lə]

(astronomy)

A nebula consisting of two relatively symmetrical bright lobes with a star between them.

Mentioned in ?

References in periodicals archive ?

It gets its moniker from a Hubble Space Telescope image that reveals it as a bipolar nebula with a very vague resemblance to a footprint.

Meet the Minkowskis: the Minkowski catalog of planetary nebulae will keep you at the eyepiece for years to come

The odd little bipolar nebula Sharpless 2-106 in Cygnus is a challenge object even for visual observers with 16-inch telescopes under dark skies.

What happened on the moon?!

If that's the case, what would a bipolar nebula look like if turned sideways?

What Is the Real Shape of the Ring Nebula? It may look like a celestial bagel, seemingly simple in design, but the structure of this planetary nebula is actually more complicated than once thought

That eruption produced the bipolar nebula famous from Hubble Space Telescope images (opposite).

Crisis at Eta Carinae?

These reveal a classic bipolar nebula in which the bright gas clearly forms two distinct lobes straddling the star rather than one continuous feature wrapped around it.