APOD
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.
The Bubble Nebula
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 natural looking view of the cosmic bubble is composed from narrowband image data, also used to create a 3D model.
| Date | December 14, 2013 |
|---|---|
| Credit | Image Credit & Copyright: J-P Metsävainio ( Astro Anarchy ) |
| Authors & editors: | Robert Nemiroff (MTU) & Jerry Bonnell (UMCP) |
| A service of: |
ASD at NASA / GSFC, NASA Science Activation & Michigan Tech. U. |




