As the universe exponentially expands with each passing day, scientists around the world continue to discover modern marvels. In a recent snapshot captured by the Hubble Telescope, NASA researchers found a “superbubble” smack dab in the middle in a massive nebula in the Large Magellanic Cloud.
“The hole is about 250 light-years wide and its presence is still something of a mystery,” NASA explains. “Stellar winds expelled by massive stars in the bubble’s interior may have driven away the gas, but this is inconsistent with measured wind velocities in the bubble. Another possibility, since the nebula is filled with massive stars that would expire in titanic explosions, is that the expanding shells of old supernovae sculpted the cosmic cavern.”
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Some 170,000 light-years away from Earth, the “superbubble” is in the N44 Nebula. NASA classifies that as an emission nebula, meaning the gas within it has been energized by the radiation of nearby stars. The reason why the nebula glows is the nebula’s transformation from a high-energy state to a low-energy state.
“Astronomers have found one supernova remnant in the vicinity of the superbubble and identified an approximately 5 million year difference in age between stars within and at the rim of the superbubble, indicating multiple, chain-reaction star-forming events,” NASA’s release added. “The deep blue area at about 5 o’clock around the superbubble is one of the hottest regions of the nebula and the area of the most intense star formation.”
