Share to Facebook Share to Twitter Share to Linkedin Hubble captured a view of N11, a complex of nebulae located in the Large Magellanic Cloud. NASA, ESA, and J. M.
Apellaniz (Centro de Astrobiologia (CSIC/INTA Inst. Nac. de Tec.
Aero.); Image Processing: Gladys Kober (NASA/Catholic University of America) One of the Hubble Space Telescope’s latest image releases might make you long for the cotton candy booth at the local fair. The venerable telescope captured an ethereal image of a cluster of nebulae called N11.
That’s a humdrum name for what NASA described as “a bubbling region of stars” in a statement on August 19. The image gives space fans a glimpse into a neighboring galaxy and the cosmic processes at work there. Hubble’s N11 image looks like a billowing red fog littered with glitter.
“About 1,000 light-years across, N11’s sprawling filaments weave stellar matter in and out of each other like sparkling candy floss,” said NASA. “These cotton-spun clouds of gas are ionized by a burgeoning host of young and massive stars, giving the complex a cherry-pink appearance.” It’s tough to wrap your head around the concept of 1,000 light-years, but it helps to know Proxima Centauri—the next-closest star to our sun—is about 4.
2 light-years away. In short, N11 is huge. An inset image shows where N11 is located within the Large Magellanic Cloud, a nearby galaxy.
NASA, ESA, J. M. Apellaniz (Centro de Astrobiologia (CSIC/INTA Inst.
Nac. de Tec. Aero.
), ESO VMC S.