NASA's Hubble Space Telescope has snapped a stunning image of the Tarantula Nebula, shedding new light on the brightest region of starbirth in our galactic neighborhood.
Also known as 30 Doradus, the nebula is a large star-forming region of ionized hydrogen gas that lies 161,000 light-years from Earth in the Large Magellanic Cloud.
Its turbulent clouds of gas and dust appear to swirl among the region's newly formed stars.
The Tarantula Nebula is home to the hottest, most massive stars known.
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A snapshot of the Tarantula Nebula (also known as 30 Doradus) is the most recent Picture of the Week from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope. (Image credit: ESA/Hubble & NASA, C. Murray, E. Sabbi; Acknowledgment: Y. -H. Chu.)
The image combines data from two different observing proposals.
NASA said that the first, which astronomers named Scylla, was designed to explore the properties of the dust grains that exist in the void among stars that make up the dark clouds in image. It reveals how interstellar dust interacts with starlight in different environments.
The Tarantula Nebula is a large star-forming region of ionized hydrogen gas that lies 161,000 light years from Earth in the Large Magellanic Cloud. (Image credit: ESA/Hubble & NASA, C. Murray, E. Sabbi; Acknowledgment: Y. -H. Chu.)
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That proposal complements another program called Ulysses, which characterizes the stars.
An astronaut aboard the space shuttle Atlantis captured this image of the Hubble Space Telescope on May 19, 2009. (NASA)
The image also includes data from an observing program studying star formation in conditions similar to the early universe, as well as cataloging the stars of the Tarantula Nebula for future science operations with the James Webb Space Telescope.