Hubble spots vast cosmic ‘superbubble’ in nearby galaxy

By Dean Murray

Space scientists have revealed a vast cosmic "superbubble."

The NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope observed the feature in nebula N44, a highly active star birth site.

N44 is located 160,000 light-years away, in the Large Magellanic Cloud, or LMC, the largest of the small galaxies that orbit our Milky Way galaxy.

NASA Hubble Mission Team said Thursday, Sept. 3: "N44 is dominated by two features: a vast central void and a shell of dense, dusty gas. The central void is a 'superbubble' spanning roughly 210 by 140 light-years across.

"The glittering stars at the center of the void are responsible for its creation; through their powerful stellar winds and explosive supernovae, these stars expelled much of the gas from which they were born."

NASA adds that when the stars of N44's central star cluster swept away this gas, the expelled gas compressed and formed a shell around the superbubble.

They said: "New stars are forming in this compressed gas shell, making N44 an interesting target for astronomers who are using the nebula to study how stars form in this environment.

"Their goal is to understand how long it takes from the collapse of cold gas clouds into dense knots to the moment nuclear fusion ignites in the heart of a newborn star."