Nebula NGC 7635 in Cassiopee - North is at top. Seemingly adrift in a cosmic...

Nebula NGC 7635 in Cassiopee - North is at top. Seemingly adrift in a cosmic sea of stars and glowing gas, the delicate, floating apparition near the center (next to a blue tinted star) of this widefield view is cataloged as NGC 7635 - The Bubble Nebula. A mere 10 light - years wide, the tiny Bubble Nebula and the larger complex of interstellar gas and dust clouds are found about 11,000 light - years distant, straddling the boundary between the parental constellations Cepheus and Cassiopeia. Also included in the vista is open star cluster M52 (upper left), some 5,000 light - years away. The image spans about 2.7 degrees on the sky corresponding to a width of just over 500 light - years at the estimated distance of the Bubble Nebula. This image is based on data acquired by the Oschin Telescope at the Mount Palomar Observatory