Since the Christmas season is approaching, NASA Hubble Space Telescope captured a piece of evidence that space might be celebrating the Holiday season already. The said captured photo is a nebula called the Space Snowman. 

Hubble Telescope Captures Space Snowman!

In the recent photo taken by the NASA Hubble Space Telescope, it captured an emission nebula located about 6,000 light-years away from Earth and resides in the constellation Puppis in the southern sky.

The nebula is called Space Snowman, also known as Sharpless 2-302 (SH2-302), which appears to be a dual-lobed ball of gas when viewed through a telescope on Earth. However, the latest Hubble Telescope picture showed sweeping curves of luminous gas and dark knots of dust in a small portion of the nebula.

Additionally, it is one of the objects in astronomer Stewart Sharpless' inventory of mainly emission nebulae that he assembled in order to find areas of interstellar ionized hydrogen or HII regions.

Moreover, the photograph was taken during a survey of huge and intermediate-sized protostars or newly formed stars. Astronomers utilized Hubble's Wide Field Camera 3's infrared sensitivity to seek for hydrogen ionized by ultraviolet radiation from protostars, star jets and other characteristics

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Emission Nebula Overview

For those who are curious to know about what emission nebula is, they are a series diffuse cloud of gas that have been charged by the energy of neighboring giant stars to the point where they now emit their own light. Ionization occurs when the radiation from these huge stars removes electrons from the nebula's hydrogen atoms. The charged electrons emit energy in the form of light as they revert from their higher-energy state to a lower-energy state, causing the nebula's gas to glow.

To give much detailed information, Seasky stated that the word nebula came from the Latin word that signifies clouds. More than one nebula is called nebulae. These are the fundamental building blocks of the universe that are made up of the elements that make up stars and solar systems.

Moreover, there are five different types of nebulae that have been identified such as emission nebulae, reflection nebulae, dark nebulae, planetary nebulae, and supernova remnants. Emission and reflection nebulae have a hazy appearance with no apparent shape or structure and diffuse nebulae are another name of them.

• Emission Nebula: Because of the abundance of hydrogen, emission nebulae tend to be red in hue. Various elements can produce other hues, such as blue and green, although hydrogen is almost always the most prevalent. The Orion Nebula is a great example of an emission nebula (M42).
• Reflection Nebula: A reflection nebula differs from an emission nebula since it does not produce its own radiation. Aside from this, reflection nebulae are frequently the site of star formations. Because of the way the light is scattered, they are usually blue in color.
• Supernova Remnant: When a star dies in a tremendous explosion known as a supernova, supernova remnants are left behind. The crab nebula (M1) in Taurus is one of the outstanding examples of a supernova remnant.
• Planetary Nebula: A planetary nebula is a gaseous shell formed as a star reaches the end of its life cycle, but they have nothing to do with planets at all. Because of their circular appearance, these nebulae have been given the name planetary. The relics of the star at its center frequently brighten the outer shell of gas, and one of the best examples of a planetary nebula is Lyra's Ring Nebula (M57).
• Dark Nebula: A dark nebula is a cloud of dust that obstructs light from behind it. They have a similar composition to reflection nebulae but differ in appearance due to the location of the light source. Emission and reflection nebulae are often seen combined with dark nebulae.

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