The Large Magellanic Cloud, a satellite galaxy to our own Milky Way Galaxy, is home to one of the largest and most intense regions of star formation known to exist anywhere in our galactic neighborhood — the Tarantula Nebula. This image from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope shows both the spindly, spidery filaments of gas that inspired the region’s name, and the intriguing structure of stacked ‘bubbles’ that forms the so-called Honeycomb Nebula.
This Hubble image shows the Honeycomb Nebula (to the lower left) and part of the Tarantula Nebula. Image credit: NASA / ESA / Hubble / Judy Schmidt, www.geckzilla.com.
The Honeycomb Nebula was found serendipitously by astronomers using ESO’s New Technology Telescope to image the nearby remnant of the type-II supernova SN 1987A.
The nebula’s strange bubble-like shape has baffled astronomers since its discovery in the early 1990s.
Various theories have been proposed to explain its unique structure, some more exotic than others.
In 2010, University of Manchester astronomer John Meaburn and colleagues studied the Honeycomb Nebula and came to the conclusion that its unique appearance is likely due to the combined effect of two supernovae.
According to the team, a more recent explosion has pierced the expanding shell of material created by an older explosion.
The especially striking appearance of the Honeycomb Nebula is suspected to be due to a fortuitous viewing angle.
The honeycomb effect of the circular shells may not be visible from another viewpoint.
This Hubble image was made from separate exposures taken in the visible and near-infrared regions of the spectrum with the Wide Field and Planetary Camera 2 (WFPC2).
Three filters were used to sample various wavelengths.
The color results from assigning different hues to each monochromatic image associated with an individual filter.
