Hubble Catches A Star Blowing A Bubble

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Hubble Catches A Star Blowing A Bubble

Mary Beth Griggs

at 08:35 AM Apr 22 2016

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Hubble Bubble

NASA, ESA, and the Hubble Heritage Team (STScI/AURA)

Cosmology //

The Hubble Space Telescope turns 26 years old this Sunday, April 24. That's ancient in space telescope years, but Hubble is still capturing some gorgeous images.

The latest image released by the Hubble team is a stunning picture of the Bubble Nebula, located 7,100 light-years from Earth in the constellation Cassiopeia.

The Bubble Nebula was first observed by William Herschel in 1787, but he didn't have images anywhere near as lovely as this.

We now know that the star in the center of the dust cloud is 45 times larger than our sun, and is sending out a strong solar wind in all directions, pushing away the interstellar gases into a 'bubble' around the star.

The blue color represents oxygen, and the green is nitrogen.

Happy Birthday Hubble!