Here is your weekly reminder of Psalm 19 — the Bubble Nebula.

The Bubble Nebula is a shell of gas surrounding a massive hot star. Stellar winds from the star push the bubble of gas out, while radiation from the star excites the hydrogen gas in the bubble and causes it to glow. The magenta wisps at the bottom of the image are remnants from a star that went supernova long ago.

The nebula resides in a giant molecular gas cloud in the constellation Cassiopeia, and is about 7,000 – 11,000 light-years away. The Bubble itself is 3 – 5 light-years in size, and, if you could see it with your naked eye, would be half the apparent size of the full Moon on the sky.

Image credit:T.A. Rector/University of Alaska Anchorage, H. Schweiker/WIYN and NOAO/AURA/NSF.