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Credit & Copyright: U. Michigan,
Lucent
Explanation:
30 Doradus is an immense star forming region in a nearby galaxy known
as the Large Magellanic Cloud.
Its
spidery appearance is responsible for its popular name, the
Tarantula Nebula, except that
this tarantula is about 1,000 light-years across, and
165,000 light-years away in the southern constellation
Dorado.
If it were at the distance of the
Orion Nebula,
the nearest stellar nursery to Earth, it
would appear to cover about 30 degrees
on the sky or about 60
full moons.
The
above image was taken with the
Big Throughput Camera
and is shown in representative colors.
The spindly arms of the
Tarantula Nebula surround the
NGC 2070 star cluster
which contains some of the intrinsically brightest,
most massive stars known.
This celestial
Tarantula is also seen near the site of the
closest recent Supernova.
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NASA Web Site Statements, Warnings, and Disclaimers
NASA Official: Jay Norris. Specific rights apply.
A service of: LHEA at NASA / GSFC
& Michigan Tech. U.
Based on Astronomy Picture
Of the Day
Publications with keywords: nebula - star cluster - LMC - Tarantula Nebula - 30 Doradus
Publications with words: nebula - star cluster - LMC - Tarantula Nebula - 30 Doradus
See also:
- The Tarantula Zone
- APOD: 2024 January 23 Á Deep Nebulas: From Seagull to California
- APOD: 2024 January 15 Á Star Cluster IC 348 from Webb
- APOD: 2023 December 10 Á Big Dipper over Pyramid Mountain
- The Large Cloud of Magellan
- APOD: 2023 August 27 Á Three Galaxies and a Comet
- APOD: 2023 June 14 Á The Shark Nebula