Bubble Nebula
Emission nebula in the constellation Cassiopeia
The Bubble Nebula, also known as NGC 7635, Sharpless 162, or Caldwell 11, is an H II region emission nebula in the constellation Cassiopeia. It lies close to the open cluster Messier 52. The "bubble" is created by the stellar wind from a massive hot, 8.7 magnitude young central star, SAO 20575 (BD+60°2522). The nebula is near a giant molecular cloud which contains the expansion of the bubble nebula while itself being excited by the hot central star, causing it to glow. It was discovered in November 1787 by William Herschel. The star BD+60°2522 is thought to have a mass of about 44 M☉.
01Amateur observation
With an 8-or-10-inch (200 or 250 mm) telescope, the nebula is visible as an extremely faint and large shell around the star. The nearby 7th magnitude star on the west hinders observation, but one can view the nebula using averted vision. Using a 16-to-18-inch (410 to 460 mm) scope, one can see that the faint nebula is irregular, being elongated in the north south direction.
Sources and credits
This article is adapted from the Wikipedia article “Bubble Nebula”, written by its contributors and licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Fathomly has changed the layout, removed citation markers, navigation and maintenance notices, and adjusted punctuation. This adapted version is shared under the same license. For references, see the original article.
Images, from Wikimedia Commons:
- The Bubble Nebula - NGC 7635 - Heic1608a.jpg by NASA, ESA, Hubble Heritage Team, Public domain
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