{"id":845486,"date":"2026-08-06T10:34:17","date_gmt":"2026-08-06T10:34:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/845486\/"},"modified":"2026-08-06T10:34:17","modified_gmt":"2026-08-06T10:34:17","slug":"croatian-amateur-astronomers-discover-possible-new-planetary-nebula-in-the-night-sky","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/845486\/","title":{"rendered":"Croatian amateur astronomers discover possible new planetary nebula in the night sky"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>                by <a class=\"articleDetails__link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.croatiaweek.com\/author\/admin\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">croatiaweek<\/a><\/p>\n<p>                    August 6, 2026<\/p>\n<p>                    in<\/p>\n<p>                    <a class=\"articleDetails__link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.croatiaweek.com\/category\/news-3\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">News<\/a>                <\/p>\n<p><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-167634\" class=\"size-full wp-image-167634\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/space-scaled.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2560\" height=\"2279\"\/><\/p>\n<p id=\"caption-attachment-167634\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">(Illustration)<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">ZAGREB, 6 August 2026 (Hina) \u2013 A group of Croatian amateur astronomers has discovered a previously unknown nebula in the Cygnus constellation, with experts now examining whether the object is a new planetary nebula.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">The discovery was made by Croatian astronomers Matija Cecelja, Matija Pozojevi\u0107, Stjepan Prugove\u010dki and Robert \u017dibreg, who spent several nights photographing a small area of the sky near the reflection nebula vdB 134.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">The faint trace of emission was first noticed by Prugove\u010dki during image analysis, after which the group carried out further research and compared their findings with available astronomical databases.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">The object appears to be located around the star Gaia DR3 2084755414429885952, which is classified as a DA-type white dwarf. Such stars are often found at the centre of planetary nebulae, leading the team to conduct additional analysis.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">The white dwarf is located approximately 2,350 light years from Earth, while the surrounding nebula-like structure has an estimated diameter of between 1.4 and 1.5 light years. According to the astronomers, these measurements correspond with characteristics typically associated with a planetary nebula of medium age.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-167635\" class=\"size-full wp-image-167635\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/nebula.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"827\" height=\"551\"  \/><\/p>\n<p id=\"caption-attachment-167635\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Nebula<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">A review of existing catalogues and scientific literature did not reveal any previously recorded planetary nebula matching the object, and the discovery has therefore been submitted for professional verification.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">The candidate nebula has been sent for examination to French amateur astronomer Pascal Le D\u00fb, a specialist in spectroscopic confirmation of planetary nebulae through the 2SPOT project.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">If confirmed, the discovery would represent the first planetary nebula identified through a collaboration exclusively involving Croatian amateur astronomers. The object would then be added to major planetary nebula databases, including PlanetaryNebulae.net and HASH PN.<\/p>\n<p>        \tSign up to receive the Croatia Week Newsletter <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"by croatiaweek August 6, 2026 in News (Illustration) ZAGREB, 6 August 2026 (Hina) \u2013 A group of Croatian&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":845487,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[64,63,128],"class_list":["post-845486","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-science","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-science"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/845486","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=845486"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/845486\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/845487"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=845486"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=845486"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=845486"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}