Astronomers using the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope have captured a striking image of a portion of the Tarantula Nebula, which is part of a dwarf galaxy called the Large Magellanic Cloud.
This Hubble image shows part of the Tarantula Nebula. Image credit: NASA / ESA / Hubble / C. Murray.
The Tarantula Nebula is located about 170,000 light-years away in the southern constellation of Dorado.
Also known as NGC 2070 or 30 Doradus, the nebula is part of one of our closest galactic neighbors, the Large Magellanic Cloud.
The bright glow of the Tarantula Nebula was first recorded by the French astronomer Nicolas-Louis de Lacaille in 1751.
At its heart are some of the most massive stars known, a few with more than 150 solar masses, making the region perfect for studying how gas clouds collapse under gravity to form new stars.
“The colorful gas clouds of the Tarantula Nebula are crossed by wispy tendrils and dark clumps of dust,” the Hubble astronomers said in a statement.
“This dust is different from ordinary household dust, which can be made of bits of soil, skin cells, hair and even plastic.”
“Cosmic dust tends to be made of carbon or of molecules called silicates, which contain silicon and oxygen.”
“Dust plays several important roles in the Universe,” the astronomers noted.
“Even though individual dust grains are incredibly tiny, far smaller than the width of a single human hair, dust grains in disks around young stars clump together to form larger grains and eventually planets.”
“Dust also helps cool clouds of gas so that they can condense into new stars.”
“Dust even plays a role in making new molecules in interstellar space, providing a venue for individual atoms to find each other and bond together in the vastness of space.”
This color image was made from separate exposures taken in the visible, ultraviolet and infrared regions of the spectrum with Hubble’s Wide Field Camera 3 (WFC3).
Six filters were used to sample various wavelengths. The color results from assigning different hues to each monochromatic image associated with an individual filter.
“The data used to create this image were collected as part of an observing program that aims to characterize the properties of cosmic dust in the Large Magellanic Cloud and other nearby galaxies,” the researchers explained.