The Hubble Space Telescope (HST) turned 26 years old, and astronomers marked the occasion by creating a new composite image of the Bubble Nebula, or NGC 7635. The Hubble observatory was launched into space on April 24, 1990, aboard the space shuttle, marking mission STS-131.
The Bubble Nebula is massive, stretching seven light years from one end to another. This distance is roughly 50 percent greater than the space between the sun and our nearest stellar neighbor, Alpha Centauri. This object resides approximately 7,100 light years away from our own planetary system.
"As Hubble makes its 26th revolution around our home star, the sun, we celebrate the event with a spectacular image of a dynamic and exciting interaction of a young star with its environment. The view of the Bubble Nebula, crafted from WFC-3 images, reminds us that Hubble gives us a front row seat to the awe inspiring universe we live in," said John Grunsfeld, a Hubble astronaut who is also the associate administrator of NASA's Science Mission Directorate.
This odd bubble is the result of fast-moving, heated stellar gas from a star within the system. Expanding from the stellar body at more than four million miles an hour, this energetic gas crashes into the cold interstellar gas in space, pushing it forward. This effect might be likened to a plow pushing dirt in front of the vehicle at a construction site. This process results in a translucent shell surrounding the body, which makes the star driving the phenomenon appear off-center in the new photograph.
The stellar body responsible for the phenomenon is classified as a Wolf-Rayet star. These objects are massive, burning brightly over the short life spans. Just four million years old (just 0.1 percent as old as our own sun), it has already run out of hydrogen fuel and has entered the second stage of its life, fusing helium to continue burning.
Due to the fact that various layers of the formation exhibit varying temperatures, the gas is seen shining in characteristic colors. This is providing Hubble astronomers with information regarding the structure of the distinctive nebula.
William Herschel, an 18th century British astronomer, was the first person to record seeing the Bubble Nebula, in 1787.
