The Bubble Nebula from Hubble
Explanation:
Massive stars can blow bubbles.
The featured image shows perhaps the most famous of all star-bubbles,
NGC 7635, also known simply as
The Bubble Nebula.
Although it looks delicate, the 7-light-year diameter
bubble offers evidence of violent processes at work.
Above and left of
the Bubble's center is a hot,
O-type star,
several hundred thousand times more luminous and some 45-times
more massive than the Sun.
A fierce stellar wind and intense radiation from that
star has blasted out the
structure of glowing gas against denser material
in a surrounding
molecular cloud.
The intriguing
Bubble Nebula and associated cloud complex
lie a mere 7,100 light-years away toward the boastful constellation
Cassiopeia.
This sharp, tantalizing view of the
cosmic bubble is a reprocessed
composite of previously acquired
Hubble Space Telescope image data.
Birthday Surprise:
What picture did APOD feature on your birthday? (post 1995)
Authors & editors:
Robert Nemiroff
(MTU) &
Jerry Bonnell
(USRA)
NASA Web Site Statements, Warnings,
and Disclaimers
NASA Official: Jay Norris.
Specific
rights apply.
A service of:
LHEA at
NASA /
GSFC
& Michigan Tech. U.
