Astronomy picture of the day 02-10-2014 - The Bubble Nebula

The Bubble Nebula
Image Credit &Copyright:Bernard Michaud

Explanation: Blown by the wind from a massive star, this interstellar apparition has a surprisinglyfamiliar 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 ofviolent 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 thestructure of glowing gasagainst denser materialin a surroundingmolecular cloud. The intriguing Bubble Nebula and associated cloud complex lie a mere 11,000 light-years away toward the boastful constellationCassiopeia. 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 thethree color image, hydrogen and oxygen emission were used for red and blue and combined to create the green channel.