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                           Astronomy Picture of the Day   
      
       Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our   
         fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation   
                       written by a professional astronomer.   
      
                                   2023 March 29   
      A star field is shown with ragged red clouds on the far left and a thin   
        blue cloud with the outline similar to the head of a dolphin to the   
         right. Please see the explanation for more detailed information.   
      
                       Sh2-308: A Dolphin Shaped Star Bubble   
                Image Credit & Copyright: Aleix Roig (AstroCatInfo)   
      
      Explanation: Which star created this bubble? It wasn't the bright star   
      on the bubble's right. And it also wasn't a giant space dolphin. It was   
      the star in the blue nebula's center, a famously energetic Wolf-Rayet   
      star. Wolf-Rayet stars in general have over 20 times the mass of our   
      Sun and expel fast particle winds that can create iconic looking   
      nebulas. In this case, the resulting star bubble spans over 60 light   
      years, is about 70,000 years old, and happens to look like the head of   
      a dolphin. Named Sh2-308 and dubbed the Dolphin-Head Nebula, the gas   
      ball lies about 5,000 light years away and covers as much sky as the   
      full moon -- although it is much dimmer. The nearby red-tinged clouds   
      on the left of the featured image may owe their glow and shape to   
      energetic light emitted from the same Wolf-Rayet star.   
      
                       Tomorrow's picture: celestial thingy   
        __________________________________________________________________   
      
          Authors & editors: Robert Nemiroff (MTU) & Jerry Bonnell (UMCP)   
               NASA Official: Phillip Newman Specific rights apply.   
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                         A service of: ASD at NASA / GSFC,   
                              NASA Science Activation   
                                & Michigan Tech. U.   
      
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