Little Miss Star with a Complicated Past ⁣ ⁣ Located about 440 light-years from Earth, Zeta Ophiuchi is a star 20 times more massive than the Sun, captured in this composite image by a telescopic duo: NASASolarSystem’s now-retired Spitzer space telescope and NASAChandraXray. Previously in close orbit with another star, Zeta Ophiuchi was ejected by a supernova explosion over a million years ago at about 100,000 miles per hour. This motion creates a spectacular bow shock ahead of its direction of travel (to the left). The structure is like the ripples following the bow of a ship as it moves through the water, or the sonic boom of an airplane hitting supersonic speeds. ⁣ ⁣ Previously released data from Spitzer reveals a spectacular shockwave (in red and green) formed by matter blowing away from the star’s surface and slamming into gas in its path. New data from the Chandra Space Telescope shows a bubble of X-ray emission (in blue) around the star, produced by gas that has been heated by t...