A Wolf Rayet Star Bubble

Astronomy Picture of the Day · 1997-09-28 · NASA (public domain)

A Wolf Rayet Star Bubble — APOD for 1997-09-28

What's a Wolf-Rayet star, and how did it create that spherical bubble and sweeping arc? A Wolf-Rayet star is a star that originated with a mass over 40 times that of our Sun . An extremely hot, luminous star , it has since expelled shells of material through its strong stellar wind which could account for the bubble shaped nebula that surrounds it. But astronomers are unsure how the central Wolf-Rayet created both the bubble and the arc seen above, and even whether it acted alone in doing so. Together, this bubble and the arc are known as NGC 2359 .

Astronomy Picture of the Day for 1997-09-28 — image & explanation courtesy of NASA (public domain), mirrored at Tukuk-OS for reading and search convenience.