Superbubble! Young Stars Highlight Glowing Gas Cloud (Photo, Video)

Glowing Gas of Large Magellanic Cloud
Emission nebula LHA 120-N55 shines in this image from the European Southern Observatory's Very Large Telescope. (Image credit: ESO)

A glowing gas cloud full of young stars shines brightly in a new picture from the European Southern Observatory's Very Large Telescope (VLT) in Chile.

The gas cloud, a nebula called LHA 120-N55, is about 163,000 light-years away from Earth and is situated in the Large Magellanic Cloud, a nearby dwarf galaxy that's one of the Milky Way's satellites. The image was taken by the VLT's FOcal Reducer and low dispersion Spectrograph (FORS2), and its location in space is pinpointed in a new video.

The gaseous N55 is inside of a superbubble, a vast structure which occurs when winds from new stars and shockwaves from supernova explosions, caused by dying stars, blow away the gas and dust those stars used to possess. The process carves bubble-shaped holes in the gas. [50 Fabulous Deep-Space Nebula Photos]

Those brilliant stars are quite young — too young to have created the superbubble — but they are responsible for the bright colors in the image. Their radiation is stripping away electrons inside the hydrogen atoms of N55, which makes the gas glow; that vibrant glow is seen as an indication of new stars.

This region will see a lot of upheaval in a few million years, ESO officials added, when some of these young stars begin to go supernova. "In effect, a bubble will be blown within a superbubble, and the cycle of starry ends and beginnings will carry on in this close neighbour of our home galaxy," they said.

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Elizabeth Howell
Staff Writer, Spaceflight

Elizabeth Howell (she/her), Ph.D., is a staff writer in the spaceflight channel since 2022 covering diversity, education and gaming as well. She was contributing writer for Space.com for 10 years before joining full-time. Elizabeth's reporting includes multiple exclusives with the White House and Office of the Vice-President of the United States, an exclusive conversation with aspiring space tourist (and NSYNC bassist) Lance Bass, speaking several times with the International Space Station, witnessing five human spaceflight launches on two continents, flying parabolic, working inside a spacesuit, and participating in a simulated Mars mission. Her latest book, "Why Am I Taller?", is co-written with astronaut Dave Williams. Elizabeth holds a Ph.D. and M.Sc. in Space Studies from the University of North Dakota, a Bachelor of Journalism from Canada's Carleton University and a Bachelor of History from Canada's Athabasca University. Elizabeth is also a post-secondary instructor in communications and science at several institutions since 2015; her experience includes developing and teaching an astronomy course at Canada's Algonquin College (with Indigenous content as well) to more than 1,000 students since 2020. Elizabeth first got interested in space after watching the movie Apollo 13 in 1996, and still wants to be an astronaut someday. Mastodon: https://qoto.org/@howellspace