One of the most detailed images of the region of space of the Tarantula Nebula, also known as 30 Doradus (NGC 2070). It is a unique combination of X-ray data from the Chandra Observatory (blue-green), optical images from the Hubble telescope (yellow), and ALMA radio data (orange). The result is impressive: the massive cosmic structure resembles a violet-pink bouquet where every dot and vein is a star, gas or dust.
Space address
The Tarantula Nebula is located in the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC), a neighboring galaxy to the Milky Way 160,000 light-years away. It is the most powerful stellar nursery in the local group of galaxies that includes our Milky Way and the Andromeda Galaxy. Due to its size, brightness, and activity, 30 Doradus is an object of constant observation.
This region has such a rich supply of “fuel” for star formation that the process will continue for at least another 25 million years. The dense cluster at the center contains the most massive stars known to science. Their age does not exceed 1-2 million years, while our Sun, for example, has existed for about 5 billion years.
Young massive stars in the Tarantula Nebula generate powerful cosmic winds that, together with matter from supernova explosions, create fantastic shapes: arcs, pillars and bubbles. X-ray images show scattered hot gas resulting from these processes. It glows with violet-pink hues that emphasize the structure of the star nursery.
The glow of the Tarantula Nebula reminds us of the magical immensity of the Universe. A violet-pink “bouquet” of shining stars, clouds of gas and dust demonstrates how beauty is born in the chaos of cosmic processes, which inspires and reveals the mysteries of the origin of stars and galaxies.
Chandra’s record observations
During 23 days of observations, the Chandra observatory detected 3,615 X-ray sources. These include massive stars, star systems that are still forming, and young clusters. This is a significant breakthrough, as previous observations lasted only 1.3 days.
Chandra also helps to study diffuse X-ray emission in such regions and track changes in the 30 brightest stars in 30 Doradus. For example, some of these stars form binary systems, and their interactions can be estimated from changes in X-ray luminosity.
We previously reported on how Hubble captured a dust factory in the Large Magellanic Cloud.
According to NASA
