A great, bubble-like mass of interstellar dust clouds opens its maw as massive stars illuminate the wispy object.

Dubbed the N44 superbubble complex, this space structure is dominated by an immense bubble 325 light-years across at its widest point. Solar winds from massive stars inside the bubble have blown away material to create the mouth-like opening seen in this image.

Astronomers are not sure exactly how the bubble formed over the last 10 million years, but do agree that that the winds billowing from its central cluster of massive stars shaped the structure’s distinctive appearance.

The Gemini Multi-object Spectrograph (GMOS) at the Gemini South Telescope on Cerro Pachón in Chile was used to catch this view of the N44 superbubble. Smaller bubbles, appearing as bulbous growths clinging to the central structure, are also present and may have been formed through the same processes as the central bubble, astronomers said.

The N44 structure is a relatively large region in the Large Magellanic Cloud, a satellite galaxy of the Milky Way that sits some 150,000 light-years from Earth and can be seen from the Southern Hemisphere. The colors in this image are specific to the emissions of hydrogen, oxygen and ‘shocked’ sulfur.

-- SPACE.com Staff

Credit: Gemini Observatory/Travis Rector, University of Alaska Anchorage