Hubble’s bubble illuminates the interstellar rubble

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A shining bauble among a diffuse cloud of stellar debris has a tremendously interesting physics story behind it.

“Truth is tough. It will not break, like a bubble, at a touch; nay, you may kick it about all day like a football, and it will be round and full at evening.” –Oliver Wendell Holmes

From 7,100 light years away, the Bubble Nebula is one of the most clearly identifiable deep-sky objects of all.

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Instead of matter blown off from a dying star, this structure arises from a massive, young and incredibly luminous star shining in a dense, matter-rich region of space.

*A portion of the Bubble Nebula as imaged by the Hubble Space Telescope. Image credit: NASA, ESA, Hubble Legacy Archive; Processing & License (cc-by-3.0): Judy Schmidt.*

Molecular clouds are where new stars often form, in groups or in isolation, and the Bubble Nebula is deep inside exactly one such region.

*The Bubble Nebula and its surroundings, as taken via ground-based imaging. Image credit: NASA, ESA, Digitized Sky Survey 2; Acknowledgement: Davide De Martin.*

Powering the Bubble is the massive O-class star BD+60 2522, which burns with a temperature of 37,500 K and a luminosity nearly 400,000 times that of our Sun.

*The star powering the bubble itself, estimated at approximately 40 times the mass of the Sun. Image credit: NASA, ESA, Hubble Heritage Team.*

The star is off-center from the Bubble’s center due to the fact that the interstellar medium is denser on the “short” side, making it more difficult to push matter out in that location.

*The Bubble Nebula from NOAO. Image credit: Brad Ehrhorn & Adam Block, NOAO, AURA, NSF.*

Emitting stellar winds at approximately 1,700 km/s, or 0.6% the speed of light, is how the bubble is created at all.

The Bubble Nebula is on the outskirts of a supernova remnant occurring thousands of years ago, potentially the source for much of the debris that lights it up. Image credit: T.A. Rector/University of Alaska Anchorage, H. Schweiker/WIYN and NOAO/AURA/NSF.

The blue color comes from partially ionized oxygen atoms, while the cooler yellow color highlights hydrogen (red) and nitrogen (green).

*The Bubble Nebula, also known as NGC 7635, is an emission nebula photographed here by the Hubble Space Telescope for its 26th anniversary. Image credit: NASA, ESA, Hubble Heritage Team.*

In 10 million years, this helium-burning star will finally go supernova, creating a different type of spectacular light show.

Mostly Mute Monday tells the story of a single astronomical phenomenon or object in visuals, images and video in no more than 200 words.

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Travel the universe with Dr. Ethan Siegel as he answers the biggest questions of all