The Red Rectangle Nebula
Understanding the reason behind the strange rectangle shape of the Nebula
Nebulas are clouds in space that come in all kinds of shapes. They can be round, oval, or totally random. But a while back, scientists found a nebula that looks almost like a perfect rectangle. This is strange because things in space don't usually form perfect shapes.
The Red Rectangle Nebula is about 2300 light years away from us. It's about 0.3 light years across, so it would take light around 0.3 years to travel from one side to the other. That's really big!
This week, let's think about why this nebula has such a neat rectangle shape. What could have made it form this way? Could it be because of the forces inside the nebula, or maybe how it interacts with what's around it?
3D Shapes and Projections
First, let's think about how 3D shapes look in 2D. When you look at a sphere from any angle, it looks like a circle. A cylinder can look like a circle or a rectangle with rou…
