nebula

IPA/ˈnebjələ/
KK[nˈɛbjələ]IPA/ˈnebjələ/

nebula — noun

  • nebulasingular
  • nebulaeplural

1. a huge area of dust and gas floating between the stars, sometimes glowing bright

1.nounC1
Definition

a huge area of dust and gas floating between the stars, sometimes glowing brightly because nearby stars light it up, and sometimes appearing as a dark patch against the night sky.

Example

The Orion nebula glows pink and blue when seen through a strong telescope.

named nebula + appearance through a telescope

Asher pointed at a faint nebula above the mountains during the camping trip.

spotting a nebula in the night sky

Common collocations
  • distant nebula
  • glowing nebula
  • dark nebula
  • spiral nebula
  • the Orion nebula
  • form inside a nebula
Synonyms

Grammar Patterns

a nebula in [region of space]

the nebula

Usage Note

Plural is either 'nebulae' (more formal, scientific writing) or 'nebulas' (more common in everyday text). Often paired with a name: 'the Orion nebula', 'the Crab nebula'.

Common Mistakes

I saw a nebula with my eyes from the city.
I saw a nebula through a telescope from the dark countryside.
most nebulae are too faint to see without a telescope and away from city lights.

Word family

Synonym discussion

Sense: noun/1

These three terms all describe large objects far out in space, but they refer to very different things. A nebula is a cloud of dust and gas, with no clear edges; it may glow because nearby stars heat it, or it may look dark because it blocks the light behind it. A galaxy is a huge collection of stars (along with their planets, gas, and dust) bound together by gravity — our own Milky Way is a galaxy that contains hundreds of billions of stars. A star cluster is a much smaller group of stars that all formed together from the same cloud, usually a few hundred to a few thousand stars sitting close to one another. So: a nebula is the raw material; a star cluster is what forms from one piece of it; a galaxy is the entire neighbourhood that holds many of both.

nebula ↗galaxy ↗star cluster

Common collocations

Nouns

  • nebula photograph
  • nebula image

Phrases

  • the heart of the nebula
  • deep inside a nebula

Prepositions

  • inside a nebula
  • within a nebula
  • in the nebula

Etymology

LatinEnglish

Borrowed from Latin 'nebula' meaning 'mist, fog, or cloud'. Early scientists used the word for any faint, cloudy patch they saw in the night sky, because before powerful telescopes existed, distant galaxies and gas clouds both looked like the same blurry smudges. Once telescopes could tell the two apart, 'nebula' was kept for the gas-and-dust clouds, while 'galaxy' became the term for star systems.