--- title: Spectacular New Image of the Bubble Nebula description: From the Hubble Space Telescope canonical: https://time.com/4305495/bubble-nebula-hubble-telescope/ author: Marisa Gertz article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-04-22T21:33:37.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-22T16:58:55.872Z article:section: Science og:title: Spectacular Photo of the Bubble Nebula og:description: New composite image from the Hubble Telescope og:url: https://time.com/4305495/bubble-nebula-hubble-telescope/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt70fc820d226bc8ab/698890643c1639312845cfa0/hubble-birthday-bubble-nebula.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: The Bubble Nebula og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Spectacular Photo of the Bubble Nebula twitter:description: New composite image from the Hubble Telescope twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt70fc820d226bc8ab/698890643c1639312845cfa0/hubble-birthday-bubble-nebula.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # This 'Bubble Nebula' Looks Like a Giant, Cosmic Jellyfish by [Marisa Gertz](https://time.com/author/marisa-gertz/) ## Marisa Gertz Apr 22, 2016 9:33 PM UTC  The Bubble Nebula, also known as NGC 7635, is an emission nebula located 8000 light-years away. This image was released on April 21, 2016. The Bubble Nebula, also known as NGC 7635, is an emission nebula located 8000 light-years away. This image was released on April 21, 2016.NASA/ESA/Hubble Heritage Team by [Marisa Gertz](https://time.com/author/marisa-gertz/) ## Marisa Gertz Apr 22, 2016 9:33 PM UTC A new Hubble Space Telescope image of a specially chosen astronomical object, the Bubble Nebula, has been released just in time for the telescope’s 26th birthday on April 24. The Bubble Nebula was first discovered in 1787 but due to its large size, was never captured in an image in its entirety. Now, a mosaic of four images from the Hubble Wide Field Camera 3 released by NASA/ESA shows its full form, including the shape of the shell that gives the nebula its name. “This shell is the result of a powerful flow of gas — known as a stellar wind — from the bright star visible just to the left of centre in this image,” NASA writes. “The star, SAO 20575, is between ten and twenty times the mass of the Sun and the pressure created by its stellar wind forces the surrounding interstellar material outwards into this bubble-like form.” Mysteriously, the star of this nebula is not located at the center of the molecular cloud, making it an object of study for astronomers. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4305495/bubble-nebula-hubble-telescope/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4305495/bubble-nebula-hubble-telescope/"},"headline":"This 'Bubble Nebula' Looks Like a Giant, Cosmic Jellyfish","datePublished":"2016-04-22T21:33:37.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-22T16:58:55.872Z","description":"New composite image from the Hubble Telescope to celebrate its 26th year in space","url":"https://time.com/4305495/bubble-nebula-hubble-telescope/","keywords":["Space","Science topic","Hubble Space Telescope","one-pic"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt70fc820d226bc8ab/698890643c1639312845cfa0/hubble-birthday-bubble-nebula.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Marisa Gertz","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/marisa-gertz/"}],"articleSection":"Science","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt70fc820d226bc8ab/698890643c1639312845cfa0/hubble-birthday-bubble-nebula.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"The Bubble Nebula","caption":"The Bubble Nebula, also known as NGC 7635, is an emission nebula located 8000 light-years away. This image was released on April 21, 2016.","creditText":"NASA/ESA/Hubble Heritage Team","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/science/","name":"Science"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4305495/bubble-nebula-hubble-telescope/","name":"This 'Bubble Nebula' Looks Like a Giant, Cosmic Jellyfish"}}]}] ```