Astronomy Picture of the Day
Discover the cosmos!
Each day a different image or photograph of our fascinating universe is
featured, along with a brief explanation written by a professional astronomer.
2014 October 2
The Bubble Nebula
Image Credit &
Copyright:
Bernard Michaud
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.
Below and left 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 and associated cloud complex
lie a mere 11,000 light-years away toward the boastful constellation
Cassiopeia.
This tantalizing view
of the cosmic bubble is composed from narrowband image data,
recording emission from the region's ionized hydrogen and oxygen atoms.
To create the
three
color image, hydrogen and oxygen emission
were used for red and blue and combined to create the
green channel.
Tomorrow's picture: a parallel sky
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Authors & editors:
Robert Nemiroff
(
MTU) &
Jerry Bonnell (
UMCP)
NASA Official: Phillip Newman
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