#superbubble

Superbubble In The N44 Nebula 

Massive stars profoundly affect their galactic environments. Churning and mixing interstellar clouds of gas and dust, stars, which are tens of times the mass of our Sun, leave their mark on the compositions and locations of future generations of stars. Dramatic evidence of this is illustrated in our neighboring galaxy, the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC), by the featured nebula, Henize 70. Henize 70 is actually a luminous superbubble filled with tenuous hot and expanding interstellar gas.

What created this gigantic hole? The emission nebula N44 in our neighboring galaxy the Large Magellanic Cloud has a large, 250 light-year hole and astronomers are trying to figure out why. One possibility is particle winds expelled by massive stars in the bubble's interior that are pushing out the glowing gas. This answer was found to be inconsistent with measured wind velocities. Another possibility is that the expanding shells of old supernovas have sculpted the unusual space cavern. An unexpected clue of hot X-ray emitting gas was recently been detected escaping the N44 superbubble. The featured image was taken in three very specific colors by the huge 8-meter Gemini South Telescope.