top five nebulae! :)
Bestie u can't just ask a man to pick only 5 nebulae
....
anyway here's 5 (+1) of my favorite nebulae in no particular order
1. The crab nebula!!!! We all know her, the crab nebula is one of the most recognizable nebulae as well as one of the closest to the first mental image I associate with the word nebula. Also known as Messier 1 and born in 1054 as a supernova remnant, the crab nebula is one of the few supernovas we have record of that was visible to the naked eye! But this may actually be my top nebula, partially because it contains a prominent pulsar aka one of my favorite celestial objects.
Look at that pulsar she's gorgeous!!!!
2. Barnard 68, a dark absorption nebula (or Bok globule) in Ophiuchus, formed by a dense and super cold molecular cloud that blocks the visible light attempting to pass through. Barnard 68 may undergo gravitational collapse in the next few hundred thousand years and become a star! It's also only ~500 light years away, making it one of the closest nebulae to us here on earth.
3. Red square and red rectangle nebulae (yes it's two but I'm putting them together). The first sits in the constellation Serpens while the second sits in Monoceros. I do like the red rectangle a little bit more, but I just think the symmetry and shape of them are really cool!!! The current theory iirc is that there's a dense ring of dust that pinches the flow into its visible path. They're protoplanetary nebulae, but they won't be around in this form for very long, the protoplanetary stage only really sticks around for <10,000 years.
4. The eagle nebula (also known as Messier 16). Is, as the name implies, one of the Messier objects. Another popular one, the eagle nebula is also in Serpens, and part of it contains the pillars of creation. Though, these pillars are only 4-5 light years in size, while the nebula as a whole stretches around 70 light years at the longest distance across. But the whole thing is gorgeous, not just the pillars! I wish the rest of the nebula got more attention, even if the pillars themselves are really cool.
5. The tarantula nebula sits at ~160,000ish light years away (compared to our lovely Barnard 68) and is the largest and most active star-forming region in our local universe. It's like, over 300 light years across in size and just SO pretty like omgomg. She's stunning and contains chemical composition very close to the peak of the universe's star-forming days.
Shoutout/honorable mentions to the shark nebula, g306.3-0.9, hen 2-47, cat's eye nebula, cassiopeia a, rcw 86 and many more.
And as a bonus specifically for you, my lovely friend, the lemon slice nebula. The original false color photo gave it a yellow color which earned the nebula its name- with current data tho i think it kind of looks like a funky lil cell, which also fits u :]