Croatian Amateur Astronomer Discovers Planetary Nebula, Named in His Honour

The news in Croatian

1. astronom  (m.)
   osoba koja proučava svemirska tijela, zvijezde i planete ↩︎
2. amater  (m.)
   osoba koja se bavi nečim iz hobija, a ne kao profesijom ↩︎
3. planetaran
   koji se odnosi na planete ili na pojave vezane uz planete ↩︎
4. maglica  (f.)
   oblak plina i prašine u svemiru koji se može vidjeti kao svjetleća mrlja ↩︎
5. zvjezdani
   koji se odnosi na zvijezde ili koji je pun zvijezda ↩︎
6. skup  (m.)
   grupa stvari ili bića koja su blizu jedno drugome ili koja pripadaju zajedno ↩︎

Translation

Text comprehension

Question 1: What is the name of the planetary nebula that Robert Žibreg discovered?

Question 2: In which constellation is the planetary nebula located?

Vocabulary

Croatian	English
astronom  (m.)	astronomer
amater  (m.)	amateur
planetaran	planetary
maglica  (f.)	nebula
zvjezdani	stellar
skup  (m.)	cluster

Read the full story

A Croatian amateur astronomer has made the country’s first recorded discovery of a planetary nebula named after its finder. Robert Žibreg identified the object on 4 January this year as a new candidate planetary nebula, with the help of his American colleague Dana Patchick, who already has several space objects bearing his name.

The newly discovered nebula lies in the constellation of Auriga, close to the well-known star cluster Messier 37. It is notably small, measuring 1.8 by 2.1 arcminutes — for comparison, the apparent size of the Moon and the Sun in the sky is around 30 arcminutes, or half a degree.

Following the initial identification, the discovery went through an official confirmation process. Žibreg described the steps on Facebook: “The process of confirming a new planetary nebula requires identifying the appropriate central star. Using data from the PanSTARRS survey, we found a faint star that is likely the source of the nebula’s ionisation. Its brightness is at the detection limit, which raised concerns about a possible error. However, additional data confirmed its existence.”

Once confirmed, the nebula received the official designation PaZib 1, combining the surnames of the two discoverers — Patchick and Žibreg — and was added to the planetary nebula catalogue. The discovery image was captured using an Askar FRA500 telescope.

Žibreg noted the broader significance of the find: “We are contributing to the cataloguing of faint planetary nebulae and highlighting the importance of combining amateur astrophotography with data from professional surveys. Additional observations with larger telescopes are likely needed for a more precise understanding of this object and its central star.”