spiral nebula

Noun

Meaning

(astronomy) a spiral-shaped nebula

(astronomy, obsolete) a spiral-shaped white nebula; these were generally determined to be spiral galaxies in the 20th century

Hypernyms

Examples

In 1912 Vesto Slipher measured the first Doppler shift of a " spiral nebula " (spiral nebula is the obsolete term for spiral galaxies), and soon discovered that almost all such nebulae were receding from Earth. Source: Internet

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