                        Astronomy Picture of the Day

    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.

                                2023 March 29
   A star field is shown with ragged red clouds on the far left and a thin
     blue cloud with the outline similar to the head of a dolphin to the
      right. Please see the explanation for more detailed information.

                    Sh2-308: A Dolphin Shaped Star Bubble
             Image Credit & Copyright: Aleix Roig (AstroCatInfo)

   Explanation: Which star created this bubble? It wasn't the bright star
   on the bubble's right. And it also wasn't a giant space dolphin. It was
   the star in the blue nebula's center, a famously energetic Wolf-Rayet
   star. Wolf-Rayet stars in general have over 20 times the mass of our
   Sun and expel fast particle winds that can create iconic looking
   nebulas. In this case, the resulting star bubble spans over 60 light
   years, is about 70,000 years old, and happens to look like the head of
   a dolphin. Named Sh2-308 and dubbed the Dolphin-Head Nebula, the gas
   ball lies about 5,000 light years away and covers as much sky as the
   full moon -- although it is much dimmer. The nearby red-tinged clouds
   on the left of the featured image may owe their glow and shape to
   energetic light emitted from the same Wolf-Rayet star.

                    Tomorrow's picture: celestial thingy
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