Credit & Copyright: Laubing  
  
  
  
Explanation:
Blown by fast winds from a hot, massive star,  
this  
cosmic bubble is huge.  
  
Cataloged as  
Sharpless 2-308  
it lies some 5,200 light-years away toward the constellation of  
the Big Dog  
(Canis  
Major) and covers slightly more of the sky than a Full Moon.  
  
That corresponds to a diameter of 60   
light-years at its estimated distance.  
  
The massive star that created the bubble, a  
Wolf-Rayet  
star, is the bright one near the center of the nebula.  
  
Wolf-Rayet  
stars have over 20 times the mass of the Sun  
and are thought to be in a brief,  
pre-supernova phase of massive star  
evolution.  
  
Fast winds from this   
Wolf-Rayet  
star create the bubble-shaped nebula as they   
sweep up slower moving material from an earlier phase of evolution.  
  
The windblown nebula has an age of about   
70,000  
years.  
  
Relatively faint emission captured in the expansive image  
is dominated by the glow of ionized oxygen atoms  
mapped to a blue hue.  
  
SH2-308 is also known as The Dolphin Nebula.  
  
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& Michigan Tech. U.
| Публикации с ключевыми словами:
туманность - звезды Вольфа-Райе - звездный ветер - Wolf-Rayet star Публикации со словами: туманность - звезды Вольфа-Райе - звездный ветер - Wolf-Rayet star | |
| См. также: Все публикации на ту же тему >> | |

 
