This photo which I snagged from Universe Today won first prize in the National Radio Astronomy Observatory’s astronomy image contest. They claim it’s a gas bubble, but a conspiracy nut like me will never believe that! For the scientists out there:

English’s winning image shows a giant bubble in the Milky Way’s dusty gas disk. The bubble has been sculpted by the wind and radiation force from a few dozen hot, massive stars along with the explosive force of supernova explosions from dying stars. The bubble, seen in the faint radio glow of hydrogen gas, is some 30,000 light-years from Earth and measures 1,100 by 520 light-years. If the bubble, in the constellation Vulpecula, were visible to human eyes, it would appear to be eight times the diameter of the full Moon in the sky.