Thursday, April 19, 2012

Tarantula Nebula

Hubble Captures Incredible New Panorama of Tarantula Nebula
By Adam Mann Email Author April 17, 2012 |  2:25 pm |  Categories: Space



Millions of young stars shine brightly in this enormous stellar nursery at the heart of the Tarantula Nebula.

The Hubble space telescope captured this amazing panorama, which reveals intricate details about the expanse known as 30 Doradus. Located about 170,000 light-years away in the Large Magellanic Cloud — a small galaxy orbiting our Milky Way — 30 Doradus is one of the largest and most prolific star-forming regions in our galactic neck of the woods.

The region is so huge that, if it were as close to us as the Orion Nebula (the nearest stellar nursery to Earth, about 1,300 light-years away), it would be the size of 60 full moons in the sky and glow so brightly that it could cast shadows on the ground.

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