脉冲风星云是一种由脉冲风形成的星云。在它们演化的早期阶段（大约几千年），脉冲风星云通常存在于超新星残骸的壳层内部。然而，脉冲风星云也可能存在于老的脉冲星附近，而后者的超新星残骸已经消失，这样的例子有毫秒无线电波脉冲星（例如斯塔普斯等人2003年提出的B1957+20）。2008年，赫斯特等人提出脉冲风星云的原型是蟹状星云。

脉冲风由脉冲星高速旋转的超强磁场加速到相对论速度的带电粒子组成。脉冲风冲入星际介质，产生一股强烈的激波，并减速到亚相对论速度。在这样的辐射同步加速器的作用下，磁化的粒子流加速喷射出来。

A pulsar wind nebula (also known as "plerion", derived from the Greek word "πλήρης" ("pleres") meaning "full"—a term coined by Weiler & Panagia [1978]) is a nebula powered by the pulsar wind of a pulsar. At the early stages (first few thousands of years) of their evolution, pulsar wind nebulae are often found inside the shells of supernova remnants. However, pulsar wind nebulae have also been found around older pulsars whose supernova remnants have disappeared, including millisecond radio pulsars (e.g. Stappers et al. 2003). A prototypical pulsar wind nebula is the Crab Nebula (Hester et al. 2008).