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Universe of the Hubble Space Telescope 2000 Calendar

The Bubble Nebula is a glowing cloud of stars, gas, and dust located some 11,300 light years away toward the constellation Cassiopeia. (The Bubble Nebula is also designated as NGC 7635.) The nebula surrounds a hot star roughly 20 times more massive than the Sun, which is visible near the left-hand edge of the image. Ultraviolet light from the star causes the gas to glow through a process known as fluorescence, and winds of material blown out from the star give the nebula its characteristic shape. The nebula is some 10 light years across.