Where are planetary nebulae found within the Milky Way Galaxy?

Created from Britannica articles using AI. AI can make mistakes, so verify using Britannica articles.

Planetary nebula Southern Ring Nebula as captured by the James Webb Space Telescope in the near-infrared (left) and the mid-infrared (right). The dimmer star at the center of this scene has been sending out rings of gas and dust for thousands of years in all directions. The Southern Ring Nebula is approximately 2,500 light-years away.

Within the Milky Way Galaxy, planetary nebulae are classified as an intermediate population of objects. They are found distributed throughout the galactic disk and the inner halo.1

While it is estimated that there are approximately 20,000 such objects in the Galaxy, only about 3,500 have been cataloged to date. This discrepancy is primarily due to the obscuration caused by dust within the Milky Way, which makes many of these nebulae difficult to observe and identify.21