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The full moon looms over the Washington Monument while NASA’s Hubble photographs the Bubble Nebula, a 7-light-year structure created by a giant star. The star emits gases at extreme temperatures, creating vibrant colors. Astronauts aboard the ISS experience the Overlook Effect, which changes their perception of Earth.
A bright full moon rises over the Washington Monument. The top quarter of the scaffolding-covered monument is visible, with its triangular tip pointing toward the pale moon above, which appears about twice as wide as the monument in this photo. The moon is surrounded by thin clouds that make it look hazy.
This stylized sphere, seen by NASA Hubble, is known as the Bubble Nebula. Located 7,100 light-years from Earth, the Bubble Nebula itself is 7 light-years wide. The bubbling star that created this nebula is 45 times more massive than our Sun!
The gas on the star becomes so hot that it escapes into space as a stellar wind blowing at more than four million miles per hour (6.4 million kilometers per hour). Gases heated to different temperatures emit different colors: blue for oxygen, green for hydrogen and red for nitrogen.
The Bubble Nebula formed about four million years ago — and in another 10 to 20 million years, the star at its center will likely explode as a supernova.
“This is so beautiful,” one user commented on NASA’s post, while another wondered how gases in space can change colours.
The rising moon was imaged from the International Space Station orbiting 265 miles above the U.S. state of Minnesota on Dec. 17, 2021.
Observing Earth from space can change an astronaut’s cosmic perspective, a mental shift known as the “overview effect.” First coined by space writer Frank White in 1987, the overview effect is described as a sense of awe toward our home planet and a feeling of responsibility to care for it.
The overview effect can bring about powerful changes in the way you think about Earth and life. Astronauts often use the words “beautiful” and “fragile” to describe the experience. When the International Space Station was flying 262 miles (422 kilometers) over Western Australia, NASA astronaut Janet Epps captured this long-exposure shot, or an image captured by the camera at a low shutter speed.
The photo was liked by more than 755,100 people, with users commenting: “Earth gets a green glow.”
NASA’s Hubble telescope captured this glimpse of the Red Spider Nebula, a planetary nebula 3,000 light-years from Earth. It can be found in the constellation of Sagittarius.
The Red Spider Nebula contains one of the hottest known stars, heating the gas around it to create shock waves 62 billion miles (100 billion km) high. These waves form spider-leg-like arcs in this image, with the star at the center resembling the hourglass shape of a Black Widow.
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