This nebula that we marvel at in this new image from the NASA / ESA Hubble telescope is located in the Large Magellanic Cloud, a satellite galaxy of the Milky Way in the southern constellation of Dorado.
The object has an extension of about 1,000 light years and is about 170,000 light years distant from Earth.
It is an emission nebula because its gas has been ionized by radiation from nearby stars, and as this gas begins to cool, it emits energy in the form of light, causing the nebula to glow.
"N44 is a complex nebula filled with bright hydrogen gas, dark lines of dust, massive stars, and many populations of stars of different ages," said the Hubble astronomers. "One of its most distinctive features, however, is the dark, starry gap called 'superbubble', visible in the new image in the upper central region."
According to astronomers, the hole is about 250 light-years across, but we know little else about it. It is quite a mystery.
As a curiosity, the deep blue area around 5 o'clock around the super bubble is one of the hottest regions of the nebula and the area of the most intense star formation, "the experts explained.
Reference: Hubble
