Credit & Copyright: Yves Van den Broek
Explanation:
Blown by the wind from a massive star, this interstellar
apparition has a surprisingly
familiar shape.
Cataloged as NGC 7635, it is also known simply
as The
Bubble Nebula.
Although it looks delicate, the 10 light-year diameter
bubble offers evidence of
violent processes at work.
Above and right of the Bubble's center is a hot,
O star, several hundred thousand
times more luminous and around 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 lies a mere
11,000 light-years away toward the boastful constellation
Cassiopeia.
This view of the cosmic bubble is composed of narrowband and broadband
image data, capturing details in the emission region while
recording a natural looking field of stars.
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NASA Official: Jay Norris. Specific rights apply.
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& Michigan Tech. U.
Based on Astronomy Picture
Of the Day
Publications with keywords: NGC 7635 - Bubble nebula
Publications with words: NGC 7635 - Bubble nebula
See also: