The Hubble Space Telescope captured a spectacular image to celebrate its 26th year in orbit, revealing what appears to be a giant, cosmic soap bubble, known as the Bubble Nebula.
The Bubble Nebula isn't actually a bubble. Instead, it's a cloud of dust and gas that's illuminated by the bright star within it. This star is what makes the bubble appear to be opaque, and what also allows us to see such a dramatic image with the help of Hubble.
On April 24, 1990, the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope was launched into orbit with the help of the space shuttle Discovery. At the time, it was the first space telescope of its kind. Each year since then, Hubble has released a spectacular view of a specially chosen cosmic object that it's spent some time observing.
This year, the Bubble Nebula is the one that's been picked. This particular cosmic object, also known as NGC 7635, lies about 8,000 light-years away in the constellation Cassiopeia. It was first discovered in 1787. Due to its very large size in the sky, though, previous Hubble images have only shown small sections of the "bubble."
In this latest image, however, Hubble was able to capture the full nebula. It appears to have an almost perfectly symmetrical shell, which is due to a powerful flow of gas from the bright star that you can see just to the left center of the image.
One of the most striking features of the Bubble Nebula is that the star isn't actually in the center of the bubble. Currently, astronomers are still not sure why this is the case. However, investigations are ongoing, and this latest image may help them better understand the forces that are currently at work in this cosmic object.
The star isn't just known for its colorful bubble - it's also known for its complex system of cometary knots, which can be seen in the image to the right of the star. These knots consist of crescent shaped globules of dust with trailing tails.
The new image not only commemorates Hubble's 26th year, but also gives a spectacular new view of a breathtaking object in space.
To see more images from Hubble, check out NASA's website.
