


The blue star in the center of the image is Zeta Ophiuchi, a titanic object "six times hotter, eight times wider, 20 times more massive, and about 80,000 times as bright" than our Sun. Located 370 light-years away from us, Zeta Ophiuchi is travelling across the Universe on its own, zooming through at 24 kilometers per second. That's an incredible 54,000mph. In the image, the star is going from the right side to the left.



They are curved because of the bow shock from Zeta Ophiuchi. As it travels, the massive star emits such powerful stellar winds that it blows away anything on its path. The star's hot gas particles travel ahead of the star—half light-year ahead. That's "almost 800 times the distance from the sun to Pluto". According to NASA, "the speed of the winds added to the star's supersonic motion result in the spectacular collision seen here."



So is this the best astronomy image of the year? I think so. You can post your favorite in the comments. [NASA]
