The Bubble Nebula or NGC 7653 was first photographed by the new NASA/ ESA Hubble Space Telescope. What looks like a huge cosmic soap bubble is actually a cloud of gas and dust illuminated by the brilliant star within it. The extremely striking image is one that has made it to the Hubble Hall of Fame. It has also been chosen as the image for the celebration of Hubble Space Telescope’s 26th year in space!

The Hubble Space Telescope was launched into orbit on 24 April 1990 aboard the space shuttle Discovery.  Each year to commemorate the anniversary a spectacular image taken from the telescope is picked out and displayed to the world as it gains its spot in the hall of fame. The astronomical objects that are pictured here are truly out of this world!

The Bubble Nebula is an emission nebula located 11,000 light-years away from Earth. It is part of the constellation Cassiopeia which was initially discovered in 1787 by  William Herschel. The image is actually a mosaic of four different pictures put together to show us the huge nebula in one image. The bubble’s shell is likely to be caused by stellar winds theorize researchers. Lot more to study in this science project.