NASA’s news feed recently posted an image of the endeavors of the space telescope as Hubble captures ‘blue bubble’ star 30,000 light years away. Scientists call it the most detailed photo ever of the WR 31a star. The reason it was dubbed the blue bubble was because it is encased in a gigantic blue cloud that is theorized is made up of hydrogen, dust, helium and other gases.
The star in question is found in the Carina constellation and is part of the Wolf-Rayet (hence the WR abbreviation) set of stars, a group that is known to display unusual spectra. They are also known as plasma spheres that are distinguishable thanks to their emission lines of helium, carbon and nitrogen that reach temperatures of 30,000 to 200,000 degrees Kelvin. Some of them are massive enough to be visible to the naked eye.
The stars belonging to this category tend to have short life spans, explosive births and equally spectacular deaths. Researchers believe that the WR 31a star was born around 20,000 years ago and yet still continues to expand at an approximate speed of 136,700 miles per hour – hence the still very visible cloud.
However, it is believed that the cloud will not persist much longer as the lifespan of stars such as these doesn’t exceed around 100,000 years. It is believed that once the life of the star is over, it will turn into a supernova that will, in time give birth to new generations of stars. On a cosmic perspective, this is incredibly short; just comparing it to our own sun, that is already believed to be 4.5 billion years old and expected to live for another 5, most of the WR type stars barely last long enough for a cosmic breath. And because those stars are nearly 20, 30 times bigger than our own sun, it makes the phenomenon even more impressive.
The stunning-looking blue cloud surrounding the WR 31a star is a result – at least according to theorizing done by scientists that have been studying these stars for a lifetime – of fast-moving stellar winds. When they interact with the outer layers of hydrogen that the WR stars eject, the gloriously large nebulas are formed as a result. Very few nebulas in the part of the universe that our telescopes can see are results of Wolf-Rayet stars.
The image that was posted by NASA on their official website is an enhanced and slightly edited version of what the Hubble Space Telescope was able to capture earlier this month.
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