Astronomy Picture of the Day [1]Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation written by a professional astronomer. 2021 May 6 [2]See Explanation. Clicking on the picture will download the highest resolution version available. Windblown NGC 3199 Image Credit & [3]Copyright: [4]Mike Selby and [5]Roberto Colombari Explanation: NGC 3199 lies about 12,000 light-years away, a glowing cosmic cloud in the nautical southern constellation [6]of Carina. The nebula is about 75 light-years across in this [7]narrowband, false-color view. Though the deep image reveals a more or less complete bubble shape, it does look very lopsided with a much brighter edge along the top. Near the center is a [8]Wolf-Rayet star, a massive, hot, short-lived star that generates an intense stellar wind. In fact, Wolf-Rayet stars are known to create nebulae with [9]interesting shapes as their powerful winds sweep up surrounding [10]interstellar material. In this case, the bright edge was thought to indicate a [11]bow shock produced as the star plowed through a uniform medium, like a boat through water. But [12]measurements have shown the star is not really moving directly toward the bright edge. So a more likely explanation is that the material surrounding the star is not uniform, but clumped and denser near the bright edge of windblown NGC 3199. Tomorrow's picture: pixels in space __________________________________________________________________ [13]< | [14]Archive | [15]Submissions | [16]Index | [17]Search | [18]Calendar | [19]RSS | [20]Education | [21]About APOD | [22]Discuss | [23]> __________________________________________________________________ Authors & editors: [24]Robert Nemiroff ([25]MTU) & [26]Jerry Bonnell ([27]UMCP) NASA Official: Phillip Newman [28]Specific rights apply. [29]NASA Web Privacy Policy and Important Notices A service of: [30]ASD at [31]NASA / [32]GSFC & [33]Michigan Tech. U. References 1. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/archivepix.html 2. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/2105/ColombariNGC3199.jpg 3. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/lib/about_apod.html#srapply 4. https://www.facebook.com/masterdarksastro/ 5. https://www.facebook.com/roberto.colombari 6. http://www.hawastsoc.org/deepsky/car/index.html 7. https://www.astrobin.com/vq5ztr/ 8. https://astrobiology.nasa.gov/news/a-wolf-rayet-bubble-and-the-early-solar-system/ 9. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap200612.html 10. http://www-ssg.sr.unh.edu/ism/what1.html 11. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap200202.html 12. https://ui.adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2001ApJ...563..875M/abstract 13. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap210505.html 14. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/archivepix.html 15. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/lib/apsubmit2015.html 16. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/lib/aptree.html 17. https://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/cgi-bin/apod/apod_search 18. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/calendar/allyears.html 19. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod.rss 20. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/lib/edlinks.html 21. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/lib/about_apod.html 22. http://asterisk.apod.com/discuss_apod.php?date=210506 23. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap210507.html 24. http://www.phy.mtu.edu/faculty/Nemiroff.html 25. http://www.phy.mtu.edu/ 26. https://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/htmltest/jbonnell/www/bonnell.html 27. http://www.astro.umd.edu/ 28. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/lib/about_apod.html#srapply 29. https://www.nasa.gov/about/highlights/HP_Privacy.html 30. https://astrophysics.gsfc.nasa.gov/ 31. https://www.nasa.gov/ 32. https://www.nasa.gov/centers/goddard/ 33. http://www.mtu.edu/