Starship Asterisk*

ravioli

The Brain Nebula?

The Amoeba Nebula ~ reference the shape and type of body that could support the beginnnings of life similar to what happened in our own solar system.

How about 'Diabolo' without the sticks and string of course.

The Butterfly Nebula.

Regards
Klaus

Psh, it's clearly a rearview of a Talosian's (or Ferengi, I suppose) head.

http://memory-alpha.wikia.com/wiki/Talosian

How about "Pulvinus Nebula" - i.e. latin for piloow

The Bowtie.

My kids suggest the Butt Nebula

Ravioli is my vote, though.

The Rosarche nebula !

Sponge Bob Square Pants Nebula... Isn't it obvious!

Wonton Nebula

Great Picture! My choice for a name----BowTie Nebula.

First discovered in 1878? That surprises me. It is indeed easily visible in my backyard telescope so difficult to credit that everyone from the Herschels down failed to spot it. (Assuming it has not got significantly brighter over the last 150 years).

The Teddy Bear Nebula, or, Ursa Rooseveltus

My first thought when I saw the picture was "Oh, a peony!" - a pink peony.

I would simply call it the Lava Nebula. To me, the colder dust particles partly shading the glowing gas behind resemble the cooled outer parts of ʻAʻā-type lava flow covering the glowing hot lava behind.

The Candy Nebula

Shuriken

What a great list of ideas! The first thing I thought of was Pussy Hat Nebula...

Crab Rangoon

The moniker of a nebula should rely on a resembalance to a time worn creature. I like the flying squirel suggestion but would suggest a horseshoe crab because of the round outline and tail-like protrusion. Flip over one of these guys and the central region is a "hot mess."

from "Wikipedia":

Horseshoe crabs were traditionally grouped with the extinct eurypterids (sea scorpions) as the Merostomata. They may have evolved in the shallow seas of the Paleozoic Era (570–248 million years ago) with other primitive arthropods like the trilobites. The four species of horseshoe crab are the only remaining members of the Xiphosura, one of the oldest classes of marine arthropods.

The extinct diminutive horseshoe crab, Lunataspis aurora, 4 centimetres (1.6 in) from head to tail-tip, has been identified in 445-million-year-old Ordovician strata in Manitoba.[23]

Horseshoe crabs are often referred to as living fossils, as they have changed little in the last 445 million years.[7] Forms almost identical to this species were present during the Triassic period 230 million years ago, and similar species were present in the Devonian, 400 million years ago. However, the Atlantic horseshoe crab itself has no fossil record at all, and the genus Limulus "ranges back only some 20 million years, not 200 million."[24]

The glowing ravioli nebula!

It reminds me of Eta Carinae; http://hubblesite.org/images/news/release/1996-23

I would name it Double Bubble; but The bubblegum company might not likes that!

momonga !!