Does a planetary nebula rotate?

Planetary nebulae are some of the most spectacular phenomena in the visible universe, but they have nothing to do with planets. They are clouds of gas -- the remnants of stars comparable to the sun that have burned all their hydrogen fuel and contracted to become white dwarfs. read more

A planetary nebula, often abbreviated as PN or plural PNe, is a kind of emission nebula consisting of an expanding glowing shell of ionized gas ejected from old red giant stars late in their lives. It would be very difficult to have an absolutely non-rotating body. Stars do rotate around the axis. read more

The primary source of spin in nebulae (also for galaxies), is torque from the local environment. Nearby nebulae, clouds, stars, etc can exert a net torque on the nebula (or galaxy) giving it angular momentum. This is the primary source of spin for nebulae. read more

The widely accepted modern variant of the nebular hypothesis is the solar nebular disk model (SNDM) or solar nebular model. It offered explanations for a variety of properties of the Solar System, including the nearly circular and coplanar orbits of the planets, and their motion in the same direction as the Sun's rotation. read more