Pinwheel nebula
Astronomical object
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
A pinwheel nebula is a class of Wolf–Rayet nebula in the shape of a pinwheel.
Wolf–Rayet nebulae
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.[1]
The first such nebula, located around WR 104, was discovered using the Keck Observatory in 1999.[2] The discovery of a second, WR 98a, established pinwheel nebulae as a distinct class of nebula.[1]
Pinwheel Galaxy
M101, better known as the Pinwheel Galaxy, was historically known as the Pinwheel Nebula[3][4] before Edwin Hubble realized that many spiral shaped nebulae were actually 'island universes' or what we now call galaxies.[5]
