NASA image showcases glittering stars inside cosmic ‘superbubble’
Hubble photographed the striking feature in nebula N44 within the Large Magellanic Cloud.
Scientists are tracking a rare interstellar comet, recently imaged by Hubble, as it passes safely through our solar system and remains visible for a few more months.
NASA recently released a spectacular image of a nebula with a “superbubble.”
Photographed last week by the Hubble Space Telescope, the image captured nebula N44 in the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC), the largest of the small galaxies that orbit the Milky Way. The nebula has two main features: a shell made of dusty, dense gas, and a central void referred to as a “superbubble,” which spans approximately 210 by 140 light-years across.
NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope captures a photogenic nebula, N44, in the Large Magellanic Cloud in this Sept. 3, 2026, image. (Credit: NASA, ESA/Hubble, D. Gouliermis)
“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 explained.
After the stars in the nebula’s central star cluster swept this gas away, the expelled gas compressed to form a shell around the superbubble. This shell is energized by ultraviolet radiation from large stars, which causes a glowing effect.
This Hubble Space Telescope image features the picturesque nebula LHA 120-N44, or N44. (Credit: NASA, ESA/Hubble, D. Gouliermis)
LHA 120-N44, more commonly referred to as N44, is found in the Dorado constellation in the LMC, the space agency noted. Located 160,000 light-years away, the LMC helps researchers study active star birth sites.
N44 is especially remarkable because new stars are forming in its compressed gas shell, which helps scientists study star formation in this particular 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,” NASA said.
Since the telescope launched in 1990, Hubble has transformed our understanding of the universe through its observations, according to NASA. Its accomplishments range from uncovering dark energy to determining the atmospheric composition of planets and stars. The high spatial resolution of its instruments has also allowed it to capture phenomenal images of faint objects in crowded clusters.
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