Astronomers using the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope have captured a spectacular image of a very turbulent part of the Tarantula Nebula.
This new Hubble image shows part of the Tarantula Nebula, which is located about 163,000 light-years away in the southern constellation of Dorado: wispy, nebulous clouds extend from the lower-left of the image; at the top and right the dark background of space can be seen through the sparse nebula; along the left and in the corner are many layers of brightly-colored gas and dark, obscuring dust; a cluster of small, bright blue stars in the same corner expands out across the image. Image credit: NASA / ESA / Hubble / C. Murray / E. Sabbi / Y.-H. Chu.
The Tarantula Nebula is located about 163,000 light-years away in the southern constellation of Dorado.
Also known as NGC 2070 or 30 Doradus, this stunning nebula is part of the Large Magellanic Cloud, one of our closest galactic neighbors.
The bright glow of the nebula was first recorded by French astronomer Nicolas-Louis de Lacaille in 1751.
At the heart of the Tarantula Nebula are some of the most massive stars known, a few with more than 150 times the mass of our Sun, making the region perfect for studying how gas clouds collapse under gravity to form new stars.
“The Tarantula Nebula is a familiar site for Hubble,” the Hubble astronomers said in a statement.
“It is the brightest star-forming region in our Galactic neighborhood and home to the hottest, most massive stars known.”
“This makes it a perfect natural laboratory in which to test out theories of star formation and evolution, and a rich variety of Hubble images of this region have been released to the public in recent years.”
“The NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope also recently delved into this region, revealing thousands of never-before-seen young stars.”
The new image of the Tarantula Nebula was made from separate exposures taken in the visible and near-infrared regions of the spectrum with Hubble’s Advanced Camera for Surveys (ACS) and Wide Field Camera 3 (WFC3) instruments.
Four filters were used to sample various wavelengths. The color results from assigning different hues to each monochromatic image associated with an individual filter.
“This new image combines data from two different observing proposals,” the astronomers said.
“The first was designed to explore the properties of the dust grains that exist in the void between stars and which make up the dark clouds winding through this image.”
“This proposal, which astronomers named Scylla, complements another Hubble observing proposal called Ulysses and is revealing how interstellar dust interacts with starlight in a variety of environments.”
“The image also incorporates data from an observing program studying star formation in conditions similar to the early Universe, as well as cataloguing the stars of the Tarantula Nebula for future science with Webb.”
