Tarantula Nebula


The Tarantula Nebula (also known as 30 Doradus) is an H II region[1] in the Large Magellanic Cloud. Below an unprecedented panoramic view captured by the Hubble Space Telescope in 2012.

At the official site of Hubble Space telescope we read „30 Doradus is the brightest star-forming region visible in a neighboring galaxy and home to some of 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.”

The nebula is giving astronomers important information about the stars' birth and evolution. It is one of the only extragalactic star-forming regions that can be studied in so much detail.

The image reveals various stages of the star life cycle. From ranging from embryonic stars a few thousand years old to stellar giants that live fast and die young in supernova explosions.


Credit: ESA/Hubble & NASA 




[1]An H II region is a cloud of glowing gas and plasma, in which star formation is taking place.

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