Would it be impossible for me to have a nebula in my planet's night sky?
I'd like to be able to see from my Earth-like planet, a very bright nebula that can even be seen during the daytime.
I question, however, whether that is possible, because in order for it to be contained in our viewing, it would have to be so far away as we wouldn't see it (since they're hundreds of light-years in size).
Would a nebula close enough for us to see impact our Solar System in any way?
I think planetary nebulae are too short-lived to serve my purpose.
Can I have a sky like this?
This post was sourced from https://worldbuilding.stackexchange.com/q/27766. It is licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.
1 answer
I asked How can I safely brighten my secondary star? because I was looking for a bright night, though not specifically a nebula, for my habitable planet. This answer suggested placing a star in a reflection nebula, which could be as close as 20AU to the primary star that the planet is orbiting. Nebulas are usually huge, but there are some small ones, as small as 1AU across.
So, you can have a star inside a tiny nebula (by nebula standards) in your (binary-star) system, visible from a habitable planet orbiting the other star. I do not know whether you could see a nebula that doesn't also contain a star.
This answer owes a lot to prior work by HDE 226868.
(See also: this post on the Worldbuilding blog.)
0 comment threads
0 comment threads