Pinwheel nebula

A pinwheel nebula is a nebulous region in the shape of a pinwheel.

Spiral galaxies

The term 'Pinwheel nebula' is an antiquated misnomer used by observers before Edwin Hubble realized that many of these spiral shaped nebulae were actually 'island universes' or what we now call galaxies.

Wolf-Rayet nebulae

Main article: Wolf-Rayet nebula

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.

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Some Wolf-Rayet stars in binaries are close enough that we can image a rotating "pinwheel nebula" showing the dust generated by colliding winds in the binary system, from Aperture Masking Interferometry observations.
Pinwheel Galaxy from ESA/Hubble

Nebula

List

Visible nebula	Dark nebula Diffuse nebula Emission nebula Planetary nebula Supernova remnant Nova remnant H II region Reflection nebula Variable nebula Preplanetary nebula

Pre-stellar nebula	Giant molecular cloud Bok globule Evaporating gaseous globule Solar nebula

Stellar nebula	Nova remnant Protoplanetary nebula Wolf–Rayet nebula

Post-stellar nebula	Planetary nebula Supernova remnant Pulsar wind nebula Supershell

Clouds	Interstellar cloud Infrared cirrus High-velocity cloud H I region

Morphology	Bipolar nebula Pinwheel nebula

Lists	List Diffuse Planetary (PNe) Protoplanetary (PPNe) Supernova renmants (SNRs)

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