# @nasa on Instagram

- **Type:** Image
- **Original URL:** https://www.instagram.com/p/CgcxRLdpT-6
- **Gondola URL:** https://gondola.cc/posts/11732751-nasa-instagram
- **Thumbnail:** https://img.gondola.cc/tr:w-,h-,fo-auto/thumbnails/8281e7c7c8.jpg
- **Posted:** 2022-07-25T20:59:20.000+00:00
- **Account Owner:** NASA (@NASA) — https://gondola.cc/NASA

## Caption

Little Miss Star with a Complicated Past ⁣
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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. ⁣
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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 the effects of the shock wave to tens of millions of degrees. ⁣
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Alt text: ⁣
A dramatic blade made of red gaseous wisps comes down top-to-bottom in the center of the image as smaller green wisps feather out in horizontal directions. A bright star shrouded in blue light is near the center of the bow-like blade. Blue dots in different sizes dot the background of the image, signifying neighboring stars.⁣
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Credit: (X-ray) NASA/CXC/Dublin Inst. Advanced Studies/S. Green et al.; (Infrared) NASA/JPL-Caltech/Spitzer⁣
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#NASA #Space #Astronomy #Chandra #Spitzer #SpaceTelescopes #Star ⁣

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## Tags

nasa, spacetelescopes, star, space, spitzer, chandra, astronomy

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