Like Cotton Candy in Space
New Hubble image reveals the effects of star birth and death
When stars are born, and when they die violently, they can rip a hole in the cloud of gas and dust that is their stellar nursery. That explains the hole in this wispy cotton candy-like space cloud.
The inedible wisps are made of gas and dust, in part of group of so-called emission nebulas named N11 that shine from light of their own making. This one is about 160,000 light-years away, in the constellation Dorado. The nebula sits within the Large Magellanic Cloud, a dwarf galaxy orbiting our Milky Way galaxy.
The image, released this week, was made using observations by the Hubble Space Telescope. The big hole was carved out by stellar winds and exploding supernovas, scientists said.