What looks like a cosmic wonderland to some resembles a spindly space spider to others. The Hubble Space Telescope has just captured a new close-up picture of the famous object, known as the Tarantula Nebula.
The nebula is a vast star-forming cloud of gas and dust in our neighboring galaxy, the Large Magellanic Cloud. In this picture, we see a close-up of the Tarantula’s central region, glowing brightly with charged gases and young stars. [Spectacular Hubble Telescope Photos]
The wispy arms of the Tarantula Nebula were originally thought to resemble spider's legs, giving the nebula its name. The part of the nebula visible in this image from Hubble’s Advanced Camera for Surveys is crisscrossed with tendrils of dust and gas churned up by recent exploding stars, called supernovas.
The tarantula’s bite goes beyond NGC 2060. Near the edge of the nebula, outside the frame, below and to the right, lie the remains of supernova SN 1987a, the closest supernova to Earth to be observed since the invention of telescopes in the 17th century.
Together with dying stars, the Tarantula Nebula is packed with young stars that have recently formed from the nebula’s supply of hydrogen gas.
These toddler-stars shine forth with intense ultraviolet light that energizes the gas, making it light up red. The light is so intense that although it's around 170 000 light-years away, and outside the Milky Way, the Tarantula Nebula is nevertheless visible without a telescope on a dark night to Earth-bound observers.
