The Bubble Nebula
From NASA’s Astronomy Picture
of the DayAlthough 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.
Image Credit & Copyright: J-P Metsävainio (Astro Anarchy)
