Diffuse nebulae

Most nebulae can be described as diffuse nebulae, which means that they are extended and contain no well-defined boundaries. Diffuse nebulae can be divided into emission nebula, reflection nebulae and "dark nebulae."

Visible light nebulae may be divided into emission nebulae that emit spectral line radiation from excited or ionized gas (mostly ionized hydrogen).

They are often called HII regions (the term "HII" refers to ionized hydrogen). Reflection nebulae are visible primarily due to the light they reflect. Reflection nebulae themselves do not emit significant amounts of visible light, but are near stars and reflect light from them.

Similar nebulae not illuminated by stars do not exhibit visible radiation, but may be detected as opaque clouds blocking light from luminous objects behind them; they are called "dark nebulae".

Although these nebulae have different visibility at optical wavelengths, they are all bright sources of infrared emission, chiefly from dust within the nebulae.