Subj : Daily APOD Report To : All From : Ben Ritchey Date : Thu Jan 31 2019 05:40:33 Astronomy Picture of the Day Astronomy Picture of the Day Discover the cosmos! [1] Each day a different image or photograph of our fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation written by a professional astronomer. 2019 January 31 [2] Sharpless 308: Star Bubble Image Credit & Copyright [3] : Laubing [4] Explanation: Blown by fast winds from a hot, massive star, this cosmic bubble [5] is huge. Cataloged as Sharpless [6] 2-308 it lies some 5,200 light-years away toward the constellation of the Big Dog (Canis Major [7] ) and covers slightly more of the sky than a Full Moon. That corresponds [8] to a diameter of 60 light-years at its estimated distance. The massive star that created the bubble, a Wolf-Rayet star [9] , is the bright one near the center of the nebula. Wolf-Rayet stars [10] have over 20 times the mass of the Sun and are thought to be in a brief, pre-supernova phase [11] of massive star evolution. Fast winds from this Wolf-Rayet star [12] create the bubble-shaped nebula as they sweep up slower moving material from an earlier phase of evolution. The windblown [13] nebula has an age of about 70,000 years [14] . Relatively faint emission captured in the expansive image is dominated by the glow of ionized oxygen atoms mapped to [15] a blue hue. SH2-308 is also known as The Dolphin Nebula. Tomorrow's picture: twin galaxies ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- < [16] | Archive [17] | Submissions [18] | Index [19] | Search [20] | Calendar [21] | RSS [22] | Education [23] | About APOD [24] | Discuss [25] | > [26] ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Authors & editors: Robert Nemiroff [27] (MTU [28] ) & Jerry Bonnell [29] (UMCP [30] ) NASA Official: Phillip Newman Specific rights apply [31] . NASA Web Privacy Policy and Important Notices [32] A service of: ASD [33] at NASA [34] / GSFC [35] & Michigan Tech. U. [36] ---------- Site notes: [1] archivepix.html [2] image/1901/SH2-308Laubing2048.jpg [3] lib/about_apod.html#srapply [4] https://www.astrobin.com/385665/?nc=collection&nce=994 [5] https://www.astrobin.com/385665/?nc=collection&nce=994 [6] http://galaxymap.org/cgi-bin/sharpless.py?s=1 [7] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EZ_Canis_Majoris [8] http://chandra.harvard.edu/photo/ scale_distance.html [9] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wolf-Rayet_star [10] http://earthsky.org/space/ wolf-rayets-are-the-most-massive-and-brightest-stars-known [11] ap030325.html [12] https://www.nasa.gov/image-feature/goddard/ hubble-view-wolf-rayet-stars-intense-and-short-lived [13] ap080522.html [14] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Middle_Paleolithic [15] http://hubblesite.org/gallery/behind_the_pictures/ meaning_of_color/eagle.php [16] ap190130.html [17] archivepix.html [18] lib/apsubmit2015.html [19] lib/aptree.html [20] https://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/cgi-bin/apod/apod_search [21] calendar/allyears.html [22] /apod.rss [23] lib/edlinks.html [24] lib/about_apod.html [25] http://asterisk.apod.com/discuss_apod.php?date=190131 [26] ap190201.html [27] http://www.phy.mtu.edu/faculty/Nemiroff.html [28] http://www.phy.mtu.edu/ [29] https://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/htmltest/jbonnell/www/bonnell.html [30] http://www.astro.umd.edu/ [31] lib/about_apod.html#srapply [32] https://www.nasa.gov/about/highlights/HP_Privacy.html [33] https://astrophysics.gsfc.nasa.gov/ [34] https://www.nasa.gov/ [35] https://www.nasa.gov/centers/goddard/ [36] http://www.mtu.edu/ --- Mystic BBS v1.12 A42 (Windows/32) * Origin: FIDONet - The Positronium Repository (1:393/68) .