NASA and The Hubble Heritage Team (STScI/AURA)
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Anchoring the Bubble Nebula (NGC 7635) is a bright star, at left, which produces a wind of charged particles that stream into the surrounding space at 4 million mph (7 million kilometers per hour). The star is 10 to 20 times more massive than our Sun. Its winds carve the bubble-like shape out of surrounding gas and dust.

The nebula is somewhere between 7,100 and 11,300 light-years away in the constellation Cassiopeia. It is about 10 light-years across, a region of space equal to more than twice the distance from the Sun to the nearest star.

In the lower right of the picture, a region of dense gas is buffeted by the stellar winds. The wind sculpts the finger-like features and heats the gas until it glows. This data for this picture was gathered by the Hubble Space Telescope clear back in 1992, and the image was put together and released in 1998. [Also, see the bubble inside the bubble]

-- Robert Roy Britt

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