The Bubble Nebula is an ionized hydrogen emission nebula 7,800 light years away, created by stellar winds from the Wolf-Rayet O-type star SAO 20575.
There are only about 200 Wolf-Rayet stars known in our Galaxy. These stars are unusual for their hot surface and very high velocity stellar winds ejecting gas from the upper atmosphere into outer space. The Bubble’s Wolf-Rayet star is approximately 45 times more massive than our Sun and is the source for the ionization of the hydrogen. It is the nebula’s “central” star, although the star appears displaced from it’s geometric center.
The Nebula is a part of a larger emission complex named Sharpless 162, located in the Perseus arm of our Galaxy. There is a remarkable arcade of bright emission knots appearing West to the central star, usually referred to as “cometary”, as well as a bright emission loop “touching” the star. The Bubble Nebula is estimated about 300,000 to 400,000 years old.
The Bubble Nebula was discovered in 1787 by Sir William Herschel. It’s study is important to the understanding of young high-mass stars that are precursors to supernovae. It is also useful in understanding the effect of stellar wind driven shocks in the interstellar medium.
Telescope: 10″ Aries f/15 Maksutov-Cassegrain on Astro-Physics 900GTO German Equatorial
Accessories: Moravian G1-0300 as Off-Axis Guider, 0.67X Astro-Physics CCD Telecompressor
Focal Length and Resolution: 2692 mm, 0.52″/pixel
Instrument: QSI 532wsg at -20 deg. C
Exposures: 3nm Narrowband [H II]: 8.25 hours [O III]: 12.75 hours, RGB: 2 hours, Total: 27.5 hours
Filter(s): Astrodon Narrowband and Tru-Balance E-Series
Exposure Date: August 19 to October 3, 2011
Seeing, FWHM: 0.9-1.5″
Processing Software: MaximDL, PixInsight, Photoshop
Image Acquisition Software: MaximDL, TheSky6, CCDAutoPilot, FocusMax, PinPoint
Type: Emission Nebula
Distance: 7,800 ly
Dimensions: 15′ x 8′
Magnitude: ~ 10 (V)
Debloomed all images in MaximDL 5
PixInsight: Calibrated, Registered and Integrated
[H II] and [O III] Data:
LRGB Combination (R=[H II], G & B=[O III]) (no L)
STF, ATrousWaveletTransform 3×3 Linear (L1 +0.4 S3,0.83,1) (L2 +0.4 S3, 0.77,1)
RGB Data:, LRGB Combination (no L), Background Neutralization, Histogram Transform
ATrousWaveletTransform K-Sigma to suppress background noise
Photoshop: Overlay RGB (Lighten) over [H II] and [O III], Noise Reduction
NASA/ADS Query1989RMxAA..18...87D Shell nebulae around luminous evolved stars Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Mexico and CONACYT, Conferencia Mexicana-Texana de Astrofisica, 2nd, Mexico City, MX, Feb. 22-24, 1989 Revista Mexicana de Astronomia y Astrofisica (ISSN 0185-1101), vol. 18, Sept. 1989, p. 87-98. Sep 1989
2016MNRAS.460.4038E The chemical composition of Galactic ring nebulae around massive stars Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, Volume 460, Issue 4, p.4038-4062 Aug 2016
1971ApJ...167..491J Radiofrequency Observations of Symmetric Nebulae around Wolf-Rayet Stars and an 07f Star Astrophysical Journal, vol. 167, p.491 Aug 1971
1976A&A....50...47I Aperture synthesis radio observations of three filamentary nebulae Astronomy and Astrophysics, vol. 50, no. 1, July 1976, p. 47-53. Jul 1976
1980ApJ...235...66J IUE low-dispersion spectra of four luminous stars in symmetric nebulae Astrophysical Journal, Part 1, vol. 235, Jan. 1, 1980, p. 66-75. Jan 1980
1973ApJ...185L..37C Infrared Observations of Two Symmetric Nebulae Astrophysical Journal, vol. 185, p.L37 Oct 1973
1973A&A....26...45I Probing the Intersteliar Medium with a Point Explosion Astronomy and Astrophysics, Vol. 26, p. 45 (1973) Jul 1973
2010MNRAS.405.2651M Small-spatial-scale variations of nebular properties and the abundance discrepancy in three Galactic HII regions Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, Volume 405, Issue 4, pp. 2651-2667. Jul 2010
1976A&AS...24....1R The Milky Way field around NGC 7635 in Cassiopeia. I - The variable stars Astronomy and Astrophysics Supplement Series, vol. 24, Apr. 1976, p. 1-27. Apr 1976
1977A&A....55..177S Spectroscopic observations of NGC 7635. Astronomy and Astrophysics, Vol. 55, p. 177 - 182 Mar 1977
Other 57 records retrieved but not showed.