Bubble Nebula NGC 7635 Discovered By NASA: On Sunday, Oct 9, 2022, NASA shared a post on Instagram that captivated people all around the globe. The post is a picture of a bubble nebula located in a constellation named Cassiopeia, which is over 7,000 light years away from Earth. The bubble nebula is also known as NGC 7635, Sharpless 162, or Caldwell 11. 

The image was taken by NASA’s esteemed Hubble Space Telescope. The Wide Field Camera-3 of Hubble has captured the enchanting bubble. 

It has been discovered that the bubble nebula has a star that is 45 times larger than the Sun. It is over 4 million years old and is set to become a supernova in about 10 to 20 million years. 

NASA has said that the nebula’s gas is so scorched that it flows into space at the speed of 4 million miles per hour (6.4 million kilometres per hour). 

The outer edge of the nebula is created when the blazing hot "stellar wind" encounters the freezing vacuum of space and bends. 

 

 

 

 

 

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What Is A Nebula?

A nebula is an enormous cloud of gas and dust that is primarily made up of hydrogen and helium in space. Although the dust and gases in a nebula are widely dispersed, gravity can start to gradually gather some of the dust and gas clumps. These clusters' gravitational pull increases as they become larger and larger. 

The mass of gas and dust eventually grows so heavy that gravity forces it to collapse. The material in the cloud's core heats up as a result of the collapse, and this hot core marks the beginning of the nebula’s star. 

The closest known nebula to Earth is the Helix Nebula, which is located about 700 light years away from the planet.

The bubble nebula’s star discovered by NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope will become a supernova in 10 to 20 million years. 

What Is A Supernova?

Nothing in the universe has eternal life and just like everything else, stars also have a lifespan. When a giant star reaches the end of its life, it explodes, causing a large-scale destruction. This phenomenon is known as a Supernova. 

During a supernova, the energy emitted by the exploding star in a few seconds exceeds the amount of energy the Sun will produce in more than a billion years. Moreover, they have the potential to glow for days or sometimes even months, outshining their host galaxies due to their extreme brightness. 

Source: NASA | The Crab Nebula created from a supernova explosion.

Typically after the aftermath of a supernova, a nebula and a highly dense core is left behind.

However, when a humongous star (in this case, a star that is more than 10 times bigger than the sun) becomes a supernova, it may deform space-time so much that it may cause substantial distortions in space-time to result in the creation of a black hole. 

A black hole is an enormous distortion of space and time that has so much gravity that nothing can escape from it, not even light, which is the fastest thing in all of the known universe.

Also Read | NASA releases black hole sound: Hear viral audio! Know how it was created

The image of the bubble nebula (NGC 7635) captured by NASA’s Hubble Telescope goes on to show how enchanting our universe is and how little we know about it.