Celestial hemisphere:  Northern  ·  Constellation: Cassiopeia (Cas)  ·  Contains:  Bubble nebula  ·  M 52  ·  NGC 7635  ·  NGC 7654
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M52 and the Bubble Nebula, Hap Griffin
M52 and the Bubble Nebula
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M52 and the Bubble Nebula

Getting plate-solving status, please wait...
M52 and the Bubble Nebula, Hap Griffin
M52 and the Bubble Nebula
Powered byPixInsight

M52 and the Bubble Nebula

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Description

In the constellation of Cassiopeia there lies two interesting objects within the same field of view. The open star cluster M52...some 190 stars linked by gravity and lying at a distance of 3000 to 7000 light years (accurate distance measurements are difficult because of intervening galactic dust). The other object is NGC 7635, the beautiful Bubble Nebula.

Looking like a celestial Christmas tree ornament, this is the beautiful "Bubble Nebula", known officially as NGC7635. Is is formed by gas being compressed by a strong stellar wind from massive star BD+602522, forty times as massive as our sun and several hundred thousand times more luminous. As fast moving gas escapes the star, it compresses surrounding sparse gas into a shell. The shell, consisting of hydrogen, oxygen and sulfur, is ionized by the radiation from BD+602522 causing it to glow. The bubble is approximately 6 light-years in diameter.

BD+602522 is a "Wolf-Rayet" star, a star in the end stages of its life which emits fierce stellar winds (charged particles streaming from its surface) rapidly depleting its mass until it finally dies in a supernova. Wolf-Rayet stars (named for their discoverers) have surface temperatures between 30,000 and 60,000 degrees Kelvin and emit stellar winds with speeds exceeding 1500 kilometers per second. There are only about 300 Wolf-Rayet stars known in our galaxy.

A closer view of the Bubble can be seen at https://www.astrobin.com/288828/?nc=user

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M52 and the Bubble Nebula, Hap Griffin