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Kaleidoscopic version of a Hubble Space Telescope image of the Tarantula nebula.
Original caption: Turning its 2.4-metre eye to the Tarantula Nebula, the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope has taken this close-up of the outskirts of the main cloud of the Nebula. The bright wispy structures are the signature of an environment rich in ionised hydrogen gas, called H II by astronomers. In reality these appear red, but the choice of filters and colours of this image, which includes exposures both in visible and infrared light, make the gas appear green. These regions contain recently formed stars, which emit powerful ultraviolet radiation that ionises the gas around them. These clouds are ephemeral as eventually the stellar winds from the newborn stars and the ionisation process will blow away the clouds, leaving stellar clusters like the Pleiades. Located in the Large Magellanic Cloud, one of our neighbouring galaxies, and situated at a distance of 170 000 light-years away from Earth, the Tarantula Nebula is the brightest known nebula in the Local Group of galaxies. It is also the largest (around 650 light-years across) and most active star-forming region known in our group of galaxies, containing numerous clouds of dust and gas and two bright star clusters. A recent Hubble image shows a large part of the nebula immediately adjacent to this field of view. The cluster at the Tarantula nebula’s centre is relatively young and very bright. While it is outside the field of view of this image, the energy from it is responsible for most of the brightness of the Nebula, including the part we see here. The nebula is in fact so luminous that if it were located within 1000 light-years from Earth, it would cast shadows on our planet. The Tarantula Nebula was host to the closest supernova ever detected since the invention of the telescope, supernova 1987A, which was visible to the naked eye. The image was produced by Hubble’s Advanced Camera for Surveys, and has a field of view of approximately 3.3 by 3.3 arcminutes. A version of this image was entered into the Hubble’s Hidden Treasures Image Processing Competition by contestant Judy Schmidt. Hidden Treasures is an initiative to invite astronomy enthusiasts to search the Hubble archive for stunning images that have never been seen by the general public. The competition has now closed and the results will be published soon.
The Tarantula is situated 170,000 light-years away in the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC) in the Southern sky and is clearly visible to the naked eye as a large milky patch. Astronomers believe that this smallish irregular galaxy is currently going through a violent period in its life. It is orbiting around the Milky Way and has had several close encounters with it. It is believed that the interaction with the Milky Way has caused an episode of energetic star formation - part of which is visible as the Tarantula Nebula. Just above the centre of the image there is a huge cluster of very hot stars called R136. The stars in R136 are also among the most massive stars we know. R136 is also a very young cluster, its oldest stars being "just" 5 million years old or so. Its smallest stars, however, are still forming, so astronomers observe R136 to try to understand the early stages of stellar evolution. Near the lower edge of the image we find the star cluster Hodge 301. Hodge 301 is almost 10 times older than R136. Some of the stars in Hodge 301 are so old that they have already exploded as supernovae. The shockwave from this explosion has compressed the gas in the Tarantula into the filaments and sheets that are seen around the cluster. This mosaic of the Tarantula Nebula consists of images from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope's Wide Field and Planetary Camera 2 (WFPC2) and was created by 23 year old amateur astronomer Danny LaCrue. The image was constructed by 15 individual exposures taken through three narrow-band filters allowing light from ionised oxygen (501 nm, shown as blue), hydrogen-alpha (656 nm, shown as green) and ionised sulphur (672 nm, shown as red). The exposure time for the individual WFPC2 images vary between 800 and 2800 seconds in each filter. The Hubble data have been superimposed onto images taken through matching narrow-band filters with the European Southern Observatory's New Technology Telescope at the La Silla Observatory, Chile. Additional image processing was done by the Hubble European Space Agency Information Centre.
Edited Chandra Space Telescope image released in celebration of the 20th anniversary of its launch by the Space Shuttle Columbia.
This is the Tarantula Nebula in the Large Magellanic Cloud, seen in x-rays.
Image source: chandra.harvard.edu/photo/2019/20th/
Original caption: At the center of 30 Doradus, one of the largest star-forming regions located close to the Milky Way, thousands of massive stars are blowing off material and producing intense radiation along with powerful winds. Chandra detects gas that has been heated to millions of degrees by these stellar winds and also by supernova explosions that mark the end of some giant stars' lives. These X-rays come from shock fronts, similar to sonic booms produced by supersonic airplanes, that rumble through the system.
This new Chandra image of 30 Doradus, which is nicknamed the "Tarantula Nebula," contains data from several long observations totaling almost 24 days of observing spread out over about 700 days. The colors in this Chandra image are red, green and purple to highlight low, medium and high X-ray energies respectively.
Astronomers used the long set of Chandra observations to discover that one of the bright X-ray sources shows regular variations in its X-ray output, with a period of 155 days. This variation originates from two massive stars orbiting each other, in a double-star system called Melnick 34. Follow-up observations with the European Southern Observatory's Very Large Telescope and the Gemini Observatory, both in Chile, measured the change in velocities of both stars during their orbit, leading to mass estimates of 139 and 127 times the mass of the sun. This makes Melnick 34 the most massive binary known, as reported in a paper published earlier this year, led by Katie Tehrani of the University of Sheffield in the UK. Within about two or three million years, both stars should implode to form black holes. If the binary survives these violent events, the black holes might eventually merge to produce a burst of gravitational waves.
The X-rays likely originate from shock waves generated by the collision of material blowing away from the surfaces of both stars, making Melnick 34 a "colliding-wind binary".
Credit: NASA/CXC/Penn State Univ./L. Townsley et al.
Photo taken by Maki Yanagimachi - Location: Mt John University Observatory, Lake Tekapo, New Zealand
Please refer to MakiTKP on You Tube for some stunning time-lapse animations.
Edited Chandra Space Telescope image released in celebration of the 20th anniversary of its launch by the Space Shuttle Columbia.
This is the Tarantula Nebula in the Large Magellanic Cloud, seen in x-rays. Color/processing variant.
Image source: chandra.harvard.edu/photo/2019/20th/
Original caption: At the center of 30 Doradus, one of the largest star-forming regions located close to the Milky Way, thousands of massive stars are blowing off material and producing intense radiation along with powerful winds. Chandra detects gas that has been heated to millions of degrees by these stellar winds and also by supernova explosions that mark the end of some giant stars' lives. These X-rays come from shock fronts, similar to sonic booms produced by supersonic airplanes, that rumble through the system.
This new Chandra image of 30 Doradus, which is nicknamed the "Tarantula Nebula," contains data from several long observations totaling almost 24 days of observing spread out over about 700 days. The colors in this Chandra image are red, green and purple to highlight low, medium and high X-ray energies respectively.
Astronomers used the long set of Chandra observations to discover that one of the bright X-ray sources shows regular variations in its X-ray output, with a period of 155 days. This variation originates from two massive stars orbiting each other, in a double-star system called Melnick 34. Follow-up observations with the European Southern Observatory's Very Large Telescope and the Gemini Observatory, both in Chile, measured the change in velocities of both stars during their orbit, leading to mass estimates of 139 and 127 times the mass of the sun. This makes Melnick 34 the most massive binary known, as reported in a paper published earlier this year, led by Katie Tehrani of the University of Sheffield in the UK. Within about two or three million years, both stars should implode to form black holes. If the binary survives these violent events, the black holes might eventually merge to produce a burst of gravitational waves.
The X-rays likely originate from shock waves generated by the collision of material blowing away from the surfaces of both stars, making Melnick 34 a "colliding-wind binary".
Credit: NASA/CXC/Penn State Univ./L. Townsley et al.
Turning its 2.4-metre eye to the Tarantula Nebula, the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope has taken this close-up of the outskirts of the main cloud of the Nebula. The bright wispy structures are the signature of an environment rich in ionised hydrogen gas, called H II by astronomers. In reality these appear red, but the choice of filters and colours of this image, which includes exposures both in visible and infrared light, make the gas appear green. These regions contain recently formed stars, which emit powerful ultraviolet radiation that ionises the gas around them. These clouds are ephemeral as eventually the stellar winds from the newborn stars and the ionisation process will blow away the clouds, leaving stellar clusters like the Pleiades. Located in the Large Magellanic Cloud, one of our neighbouring galaxies, and situated at a distance of 170 000 light-years away from Earth, the Tarantula Nebula is the brightest known nebula in the Local Group of galaxies. It is also the largest (around 650 light-years across) and most active star-forming region known in our group of galaxies, containing numerous clouds of dust and gas and two bright star clusters. A recent Hubble image shows a large part of the nebula immediately adjacent to this field of view. The cluster at the Tarantula nebula’s centre is relatively young and very bright. While it is outside the field of view of this image, the energy from it is responsible for most of the brightness of the Nebula, including the part we see here. The nebula is in fact so luminous that if it were located within 1000 light-years from Earth, it would cast shadows on our planet. The Tarantula Nebula was host to the closest supernova ever detected since the invention of the telescope, supernova 1987A, which was visible to the naked eye. The image was produced by Hubble’s Advanced Camera for Surveys, and has a field of view of approximately 3.3 by 3.3 arcminutes. A version of this image was entered into the Hubble’s Hidden Treasures Image Processing Competition by contestant Judy Schmidt. Hidden Treasures is an initiative to invite astronomy enthusiasts to search the Hubble archive for stunning images that have never been seen by the general public. The competition has now closed and the results will be published soon.
Turning its 2.4-metre eye to the Tarantula Nebula, the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope has taken this close-up of the outskirts of the main cloud of the Nebula. The bright wispy structures are the signature of an environment rich in ionised hydrogen gas, called H II by astronomers. In reality these appear red, but the choice of filters and colours of this image, which includes exposures both in visible and infrared light, make the gas appear green. These regions contain recently formed stars, which emit powerful ultraviolet radiation that ionises the gas around them. These clouds are ephemeral as eventually the stellar winds from the newborn stars and the ionisation process will blow away the clouds, leaving stellar clusters like the Pleiades. Located in the Large Magellanic Cloud, one of our neighbouring galaxies, and situated at a distance of 170 000 light-years away from Earth, the Tarantula Nebula is the brightest known nebula in the Local Group of galaxies. It is also the largest (around 650 light-years across) and most active star-forming region known in our group of galaxies, containing numerous clouds of dust and gas and two bright star clusters. A recent Hubble image shows a large part of the nebula immediately adjacent to this field of view. The cluster at the Tarantula nebula’s centre is relatively young and very bright. While it is outside the field of view of this image, the energy from it is responsible for most of the brightness of the Nebula, including the part we see here. The nebula is in fact so luminous that if it were located within 1000 light-years from Earth, it would cast shadows on our planet. The Tarantula Nebula was host to the closest supernova ever detected since the invention of the telescope, supernova 1987A, which was visible to the naked eye. The image was produced by Hubble’s Advanced Camera for Surveys, and has a field of view of approximately 3.3 by 3.3 arcminutes. A version of this image was entered into the Hubble’s Hidden Treasures Image Processing Competition by contestant Judy Schmidt. Hidden Treasures is an initiative to invite astronomy enthusiasts to search the Hubble archive for stunning images that have never been seen by the general public. The competition has now closed and the results will be published soon.
Edited Chandra Space Telescope (with Webb Space Telescope data) of the Tarantula Nebula (in the Large Magellanic Cloud) seen in X-rays and some near infrared light.
30 Doradus is the brightest star-forming region in our galactic neighborhood and home to the most massive stars ever seen. The nebula resides 170 000 light-years away in the Large Magellanic Cloud, a small, satellite galaxy of our Milky Way. No known star-forming region in our galaxy is as large or as prolific as 30 Doradus. The image comprises one of the largest mosaics ever assembled from Hubble photos and includes observations taken by Hubble’s Wide Field Camera 3 and Advanced Camera for Surveys, combined with observations from the European Southern Observatory’s MPG/ESO 2.2-metre telescope which trace the location of glowing hydrogen and oxygen. The image is being released to celebrate Hubble's 22nd anniversary.
Turning its 2.4-metre eye to the Tarantula Nebula, the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope has taken this close-up of the outskirts of the main cloud of the Nebula. The bright wispy structures are the signature of an environment rich in ionised hydrogen gas, called H II by astronomers. In reality these appear red, but the choice of filters and colours of this image, which includes exposures both in visible and infrared light, make the gas appear green. These regions contain recently formed stars, which emit powerful ultraviolet radiation that ionises the gas around them. These clouds are ephemeral as eventually the stellar winds from the newborn stars and the ionisation process will blow away the clouds, leaving stellar clusters like the Pleiades. Located in the Large Magellanic Cloud, one of our neighbouring galaxies, and situated at a distance of 170 000 light-years away from Earth, the Tarantula Nebula is the brightest known nebula in the Local Group of galaxies. It is also the largest (around 650 light-years across) and most active star-forming region known in our group of galaxies, containing numerous clouds of dust and gas and two bright star clusters. A recent Hubble image shows a large part of the nebula immediately adjacent to this field of view. The cluster at the Tarantula nebula’s centre is relatively young and very bright. While it is outside the field of view of this image, the energy from it is responsible for most of the brightness of the Nebula, including the part we see here. The nebula is in fact so luminous that if it were located within 1000 light-years from Earth, it would cast shadows on our planet. The Tarantula Nebula was host to the closest supernova ever detected since the invention of the telescope, supernova 1987A, which was visible to the naked eye. The image was produced by Hubble’s Advanced Camera for Surveys, and has a field of view of approximately 3.3 by 3.3 arcminutes. A version of this image was entered into the Hubble’s Hidden Treasures Image Processing Competition by contestant Judy Schmidt. Hidden Treasures is an initiative to invite astronomy enthusiasts to search the Hubble archive for stunning images that have never been seen by the general public. The competition has now closed and the results will be published soon.
Sending chills down the spine of all arachnophobes is the Tarantula Nebula in this image from NASA's Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE). Located in the southern constellation of Dorado, the Tarantula Nebula is a giant star forming region in the Large Magellanic Cloud.
The Large Magellanic Cloud is an irregular dwarf galaxy that orbits the Milky Way. It is relatively close, in galactic terms, at about 160,000 light-years. Its motion around the Milky Way causes compression of interstellar dust and gas at is leading edge. This has led to the huge burst of star formation creating the Tarantula Nebula.
At about 1,900 light-years across, the Tarantula Nebula is the largest star forming region known in the entire Local Group of galaxies, a region encompassing over 30 galaxies including the great galaxy in Andromeda. In 1987, the closest supernova observed since the invention of the telescope was seen at the edge of the Tarantula Nebula (SN1987A). It was determined to be the violent explosion of a very massive star.
All four infrared detectors aboard WISE were used to make this mosaic. The image spans an area of 1.4 x 1.2 degrees on the sky or about 3 times as wide as the full Moon, and 2.5 times as high. Color is representational: blue and cyan represent infrared light at wavelengths of 3.4 and 4.6 microns, which is dominated by light from stars. Green and red represent light at 12 and 22 microns, which is mostly light from warm dust.
This composite of 30 Doradus, aka the Tarantula Nebula, contains data from Chandra (blue), Hubble (green), and Spitzer (red). Located in the Large Magellanic Cloud, the Tarantula Nebula is one of the largest star-forming regions close to the Milky Way. Chandra's X-rays detect gas that has been heated to millions of degrees by stellar winds and supernovas. This high-energy stellar activity creates shock fronts, which are similar to sonic booms. Hubble reveals the light from massive stars at various stages of star birth, while Spitzer shows where the relatively cooler gas and dust lie.
Hubble Space Telescope image of the nebula 30 Doradus (also known as the Tarantula Nebula) in the Large Magellanic Cloud.
This isn't how it really looks, as you've no doubt noticed. There were several images from Hubble - I took one in infrared and one in visible wavelengths and got the delta between them. Then, I inverted the result and applied some standard color filters along with a tonal contrast filter. It came out impressionistic...
Edited (probably from the Deep Sky Survey) image of part of the Large Magellanic Cloud and the Tarantula Nebula. Inverted grayscale variant.
Original caption: This ground-based view of the Tarantula Nebula shows the nebula in its entirety. It is the brightest region of star formation in the local Universe. Hubble’s field of view covers just a tiny spot in the upper-right quadrant of this image, though it reveals detail invisible here, including a supernova remnant.
NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope has captured in stunning detail the spidery filaments and newborn stars of the Tarantula Nebula, a rich star-forming region also known as 30 Doradus. This cloud of glowing dust and gas is located in the Large Magellanic Cloud, the nearest galaxy to our own Milky Way, and is visible primarily from the Southern Hemisphere. This image of an interstellar cauldron provides a snapshot of the complex physical processes and chemistry that govern the birth -- and death -- of stars.
At the heart of the nebula is a compact cluster of stars, known as R136, which contains very massive and young stars. The brightest of these blue supergiant stars are up to 100 times more massive than the Sun, and are at least 100,000 times more luminous. These stars will live fast and die young, at least by astronomical standards, exhausting their nuclear fuel in a few million years.
The Spitzer Space Telescope image was obtained with an infrared array camera that is sensitive to invisible infrared light at wavelengths that are about ten times longer than visible light. In this four-color composite, emission at 3.6 microns is depicted in blue, 4.5 microns in green, 5.8 microns in orange, and 8.0 microns in red. The image covers a region that is three-quarters the size of the full moon.
The Spitzer observations penetrate the dust clouds throughout the Tarantula to reveal previously hidden sites of star formation. Within the luminescent nebula, many holes are also apparent. These voids are produced by highly energetic winds originating from the massive stars in the central star cluster. The structures at the edges of these voids are particularly interesting. Dense pillars of gas and dust, sculpted by the stellar radiation, denote the birthplace of future generations of stars.
The Spitzer image provides information about the composition of the material at the edges of the voids. The surface layers closest to the massive stars are subject to the most intense stellar radiation. Here, the atoms are stripped of their electrons, and the green color of these regions is indicative of the radiation from this highly excited, or 'ionized,' material. The ubiquitous red filaments seen throughout the image reveal the presence of molecular material thought to be rich in hydrocarbons.
The Tarantula Nebula is the nearest example of a 'starburst' phenomenon, in which intense episodes of star formation occur on massive scales. Most starbursts, however, are associated with dusty and distant galaxies. Spitzer infrared observations of the Tarantula provide astronomers with an unprecedented view of the lifecycle of massive stars and their vital role in regulating the birth of future stellar and planetary systems.
Nikon D3100 - Telescopio Sky-Watcher Dobsonian 203mm/1200mm (8") - 69 lights, a ISO 6400/12.800 con DeepSkyStacker - Exposiciones de 1/2s a 1/4s.
La Nebulosa de la Tarántula, también conocida como 30 Doradus o NGC 2070, es una región H II que se encuentra en la Gran Nube de Magallanes. Inicialmente considerada una estrella, en 1751 Nicolas Louis de Lacaille reconoció su naturaleza de nebulosa.1
Con una magnitud aparente de 8, la Nebulosa de la Tarántula es un objeto extremadamente luminoso, considerando que se encuentra a unos 170.000 años luz de distancia.2 Su luminosidad es tal, que si se encontrara a la misma distancia de la Tierra que la Nebulosa de Orión, llegaría a producir sombras. De hecho, es la región de formación estelar más activa conocida dentro de las galaxias del Grupo Local. En su centro se encuentra el cúmulo estelar R136, extraordinariamente compacto, masivo (450000 veces más masivo que el Sol), y rico en estrellas de muy alta masa y luminosidad, que produce la mayor parte de la energía que hace visible la nebulosa, estimándose su edad en 1 ó 2 millones de años y existiendo la posibilidad de que en el futuro se acabe convirtiendo en un cúmulo globular de baja masa.
(Info de es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nebulosa_de_la_Tar%C3%A1ntula)
Edited Hubble Space Telescope image of a pretty, pink nebula in the Tarantula Nebula in the the Large Magellanic Cloud. Inverted grayscale variant.
Original caption: This image shows a region of space called LHA 120-N150. It is a substructure of the gigantic Tarantula Nebula. The latter is the largest known stellar nursery in the local Universe. The nebula is situated more than 160 000 light-years away in the Large Magellanic Cloud, a neighbouring dwarf irregular galaxy that orbits the Milky Way.
Turning its 2.4-metre eye to the Tarantula Nebula, the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope has taken this close-up of the outskirts of the main cloud of the Nebula. The bright wispy structures are the signature of an environment rich in ionised hydrogen gas, called H II by astronomers. In reality these appear red, but the choice of filters and colours of this image, which includes exposures both in visible and infrared light, make the gas appear green. These regions contain recently formed stars, which emit powerful ultraviolet radiation that ionises the gas around them. These clouds are ephemeral as eventually the stellar winds from the newborn stars and the ionisation process will blow away the clouds, leaving stellar clusters like the Pleiades. Located in the Large Magellanic Cloud, one of our neighbouring galaxies, and situated at a distance of 170 000 light-years away from Earth, the Tarantula Nebula is the brightest known nebula in the Local Group of galaxies. It is also the largest (around 650 light-years across) and most active star-forming region known in our group of galaxies, containing numerous clouds of dust and gas and two bright star clusters. A recent Hubble image shows a large part of the nebula immediately adjacent to this field of view. The cluster at the Tarantula nebula’s centre is relatively young and very bright. While it is outside the field of view of this image, the energy from it is responsible for most of the brightness of the Nebula, including the part we see here. The nebula is in fact so luminous that if it were located within 1000 light-years from Earth, it would cast shadows on our planet. The Tarantula Nebula was host to the closest supernova ever detected since the invention of the telescope, supernova 1987A, which was visible to the naked eye. The image was produced by Hubble’s Advanced Camera for Surveys, and has a field of view of approximately 3.3 by 3.3 arcminutes. A version of this image was entered into the Hubble’s Hidden Treasures Image Processing Competition by contestant Judy Schmidt. Hidden Treasures is an initiative to invite astronomy enthusiasts to search the Hubble archive for stunning images that have never been seen by the general public. The competition has now closed and the results will be published soon.
Photo taken by Maki Yanagimachi - Location: Mt John University Observatory, Lake Tekapo, New Zealand
Please refer to MakiTKP on You Tube for some stunning time-lapse animations.
This composite of 30 Doradus, aka the Tarantula Nebula, contains data from Chandra (blue), Hubble (green), and Spitzer (red). Located in the Large Magellanic Cloud, the Tarantula Nebula is one of the largest star-forming regions close to the Milky Way. Chandra's X-rays detect gas that has been heated to millions of degrees by stellar winds and supernovas. This high-energy stellar activity creates shock fronts, which are similar to sonic booms. Hubble reveals the light from massive stars at various stages of star birth, while Spitzer shows where the relatively cooler gas and dust lie.
First tracked shot of the tarantula nebula. We are limited to 30 seconds exposure as we do not yet have an autoguider.
NEQ6
Saxon 500mm refractor
Canon 7D
10x30s with darks + bias stacked with DSS
Edited Hubble Space Telescope image of the star cluster R136 in the Tarantula Nebula in the Large Magellanic Cloud, a satellite galaxy of the Milky Way.
The image shows the central region of the Tarantula Nebula in the Large Magellanic Cloud. The young and dense star cluster R136 can be seen at the lower right of the image. This cluster contains hundreds of young blue stars, among them the most massive star detected in the Universe so far. Using the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope astronomers were able to study the central and most dense region of this cluster in detail. Here they found nine stars with more than 100 solar masses.
Location: Fongky Observatory, Malaysia
Optical Configuration: GSO RC8 +
Astrophysics CCDT67 FR + Atik EFW + Camera
Camera: ZWO ASI1600MM, ASI224MC (Guiding)
Filter: Baader Ha 7nm, OIII 8.5nm, SII 8nm
Other Equipment: iOptron iEQ45 Pro
Integration: Ha 300s x 10, OIII 360s x 12, SII 420s x 12
Calibration: 10 darks, 10 biases, 5 flats in Ha, OIII, SII
Photo taken by Maki Yanagimachi - Location: Mt John University Observatory, Lake Tekapo, New Zealand
Please refer to MakiTKP on You Tube for some stunning time-lapse animations.
Photo taken by Maki Yanagimachi - Location: Mt John University Observatory, Lake Tekapo, New Zealand
Please refer to MakiTKP on You Tube for some stunning time-lapse animations.
Photo taken by Maki Yanagimachi - Location: Mt John University Observatory, Lake Tekapo, New Zealand
Please refer to MakiTKP on You Tube for some stunning time-lapse animations.
Photo taken by Maki Yanagimachi - Location: Mt John University Observatory, Lake Tekapo, New Zealand
Please refer to MakiTKP on You Tube for some stunning time-lapse animations.
Located inside the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC) – one of our closest galaxies – in what some describe as a frightening sight, the Tarantula nebula is worth looking at in detail. Also known as 30 Doradus or NGC 2070, the nebula owes its name to the arrangement of its bright patches that somewhat resemble the legs of a tarantula. Taking the name of one of the biggest spiders on Earth is very fitting in view of the gigantic proportions of this celestial nebula — it measures nearly 1,000 light years across ! Its proximity, the favourable inclination of the LMC, and the absence of intervening dust make this nebula one of the best laboratories to better understand the formation of massive stars. This spectacular nebula is energised by an exceptionally high concentration of massive stars, often referred to as super star clusters. This image is based on data acquired with the 1.5 m Danish telescope at the ESO La Silla Observatory in Chile, through three filters (B: 80 s, V: 60 s, R: 5
Edited Hubble Space Telescope image of part of the Tarantula Nebula in the Large Magellanic Cloud.
Original caption: Today’s NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope Picture of the Week features a dusty yet sparkling scene from one of the Milky Way’s satellite galaxies, the Large Magellanic Cloud. The Large Magellanic Cloud is a dwarf galaxy situated about 160 000 light-years away in the constellations Dorado and Mensa. Despite being only 10–20% as massive as the Milky Way galaxy, the Large Magellanic Cloud contains some of the most impressive star-forming regions in the nearby Universe. The scene pictured here is on the outskirts of the Tarantula Nebula, the largest and most productive star-forming region in the local Universe. At its center, the Tarantula Nebula hosts the most massive stars known, which weigh in at roughly 200 times the mass of the Sun. The section of the nebula shown here features serene blue gas, brownish-orange dust patches and a sprinkling of multicoloured stars. The stars within and behind the dust clouds appear redder than those that are not obscured by dust. Dust absorbs and scatters blue light more than red light, allowing more of the red light to reach our telescopes and making the stars appear redder than they are. This image incorporates ultraviolet and infrared light as well as visible light. Using Hubble observations of dusty nebulae in the Large Magellanic Cloud and other galaxies, researchers will study these distant dust grains, helping to understand the role that cosmic dust plays in the formation of new stars and planets. [Image Description: A section of a nebula, made up of layers of coloured clouds of gas, of varying thickness. In the background are bluish, translucent and wispy clouds; on top of these are stretches of redder and darker, clumpy dust, mostly along the bottom and right. In the bottom left corner are some dense bars of dust that block light and appear black. Small stars are scattered across the nebula.]
Imagen comparativa y descriptiva de la Nebulosa Tarántula y sus alrededores.
Con su intenso brillo, situada a unos 170.000 años luz de distancia, la nebulosa de la Tarántula es el objeto más destacado de la Gran Nube de Magallanes, una galaxia satélite de nuestra Vía Láctea. Esta imagen, obtenida con el telescopio de rastreo del VLT, en el Observatorio Paranal de ESO, en Chile, muestra de forma muy detallada esta región y sus ricos alrededores. Revela un paisaje cósmico de cúmulos de estrellas, nubes de gas que brillan intensamente y los dispersos restos de explosiones de supernova.
This view shows part of the very active star-forming region around the Tarantula Nebula in the Large Magellanic Cloud, a small neighbour of the Milky Way. At the exact centre lies the brilliant but isolated star VFTS 682 and to its lower right the very rich star cluster R 136. The origins of VFTS are unclear — was it ejected from R 136 or did it form on its own? The star appears yellow-red in this view, which includes both visible-light and infrared images from the Wide Field Imager at the 2.2-metre MPG/ESO telescope at La Silla and the 4.1-metre infrared VISTA telescope at Paranal, because of the effects of dust.
This composite of 30 Doradus, aka the Tarantula Nebula, contains data from Chandra (blue), Hubble (green), and Spitzer (red). Located in the Large Magellanic Cloud, the Tarantula Nebula is one of the largest star-forming regions close to the Milky Way. Chandra's X-rays detect gas that has been heated to millions of degrees by stellar winds and supernovas. This high-energy stellar activity creates shock fronts, which are similar to sonic booms. Hubble reveals the light from massive stars at various stages of star birth, while Spitzer shows where the relatively cooler gas and dust lie.
This view shows part of the very active star-forming region around the Tarantula Nebula in the Large Magellanic Cloud, a small neighbour of the Milky Way. At the exact centre lies the brilliant but isolated star VFTS 682 and to its lower right the very rich star cluster R 136. The origins of VFTS are unclear — was it ejected from R 136 or did it form on its own? The star appears yellow-red in this view, which includes both visible-light and infrared images from the Wide Field Imager at the 2.2-metre MPG/ESO telescope at La Silla and the 4.1-metre infrared VISTA telescope at Paranal, because of the effects of dust.
One square degree image of the Tarantula Nebula and its surroundings. The spidery nebula is seen in the upper-centre of the image. Slightly to the lower-right, a web of filaments harbours the famous supernova SN 1987A (see below). Many other reddish nebulae are visible in the image, as well as a cluster of young stars on the left, known as NGC 2100. Technical information: the image is based on observations carried out by Joao Alves (Calar Alto, Spain), Benoit Vandame and Yuri Beletski (ESO) with the Wide Field Imager (WFI) at the 2.2-m telescope on La Silla. These data consist of a 2x2 WFI mosaic in the B- and V-bands, and in the H-alpha and [OIII] narrow bands. The data were first processed with the ESO/MVM pipeline by the Advanced Data Products (ADP) group at ESO. This image is available as a mounted image in the ESOshop. #L
This view shows part of the very active star-forming region around the Tarantula Nebula in the Large Magellanic Cloud, a small neighbour of the Milky Way. At the exact centre lies the brilliant but isolated star VFTS 682 and to its lower right the very rich star cluster R 136. The origins of VFTS are unclear — was it ejected from R 136 or did it form on its own? The star appears yellow-red in this view, which includes both visible-light and infrared images from the Wide Field Imager at the 2.2-metre MPG/ESO telescope at La Silla and the 4.1-metre infrared VISTA telescope at Paranal, because of the effects of dust.
This is the tarantula nebula , right inside the LMC. Its another sta forming region and is so bright that if it were as close as the Orion Nebula it would cast shadows!
Edited European Southern Observatory image of part of the Tarantula Nebula in the Large Magellanic Cloud. Color/processing variant.
Original caption: Located inside the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC) – one of our closest galaxies – in what some describe as a frightening sight, the Tarantula nebula is worth looking at in detail. Also known as 30 Doradus or NGC 2070, the nebula owes its name to the arrangement of its bright patches that somewhat resemble the legs of a tarantula. Taking the name of one of the biggest spiders on Earth is very fitting in view of the gigantic proportions of this celestial nebula — it measures nearly 1,000 light years across ! Its proximity, the favourable inclination of the LMC, and the absence of intervening dust make this nebula one of the best laboratories to better understand the formation of massive stars. This spectacular nebula is energised by an exceptionally high concentration of massive stars, often referred to as super star clusters. This image is based on data acquired with the 1.5 m Danish telescope at the ESO La Silla Observatory in Chile, through three filters (B: 80 s, V: 60 s, R: 50 s).
This image shows, on the left, a wide-field view of the Tarantula Nebula, a vast stellar nursery in the Large Magellanic Cloud. This was taken with the Wide Field Imager (WFI) on the MPG/ESO 2.2-metre telescope at the European Southern Observatory’s site at La Silla, Chile. On the right is a narrower, more detailed view of part of the nebula, observed by Hubble’s Advanced Camera for Surveys. The location of the Hubble image is marked by a square near the centre of the WFI image.
One square degree image of the Tarantula Nebula and its surroundings. The spidery nebula is seen in the upper-centre of the image. Slightly to the lower-right, a web of filaments harbours the famous supernova SN 1987A (see below). Many other reddish nebulae are visible in the image, as well as a cluster of young stars on the left, known as NGC 2100. Technical information: the image is based on observations carried out by Joao Alves (Calar Alto, Spain), Benoit Vandame and Yuri Beletski (ESO) with the Wide Field Imager (WFI) at the 2.2-m telescope on La Silla. These data consist of a 2x2 WFI mosaic in the B- and V-bands, and in the H-alpha and [OIII] narrow bands. The data were first processed with the ESO/MVM pipeline by the Advanced Data Products (ADP) group at ESO. This image is available as a mounted image in the ESOshop. #L