Drama in the Heart of the Tarantula
Enormous stars in the Tarantula Nebula, one of the largest massive star-forming regions close to the Milky Way, are producing intense radiation and searing winds of multimillion-degree gas that carve out gigantic bubbles in the surrounding cooler gas and dust. Other massive stars in the nebula have raced through their evolution and exploded catastrophically as supernovae, expanding these bubbles into x-ray-brightened superbubbles.
Image Credit: NASA/CXC/Penn State/L.Townsley, et al.
Crossposted on Soccer Dad.