Images by Date
Images by Category
Solar System
Stars
Exoplanets
White Dwarfs
Supernovas
Neutron Stars
Black Holes
Milky Way Galaxy
Normal Galaxies
Quasars
Galaxy Clusters
Cosmology/Deep Field
Miscellaneous
Images by Interest
Space Scoop for Kids
4K JPG
Multiwavelength
Sky Map
Constellations
Photo Blog
Top Rated Images
Image Handouts
Desktops
Fits Files
Image Tutorials
Photo Album Tutorial
False Color
Cosmic Distance
Look-Back Time
Scale & Distance
Angular Measurement
Images & Processing
AVM/Metadata
Image Use Policy
Web Shortcuts
Chandra Blog
RSS Feed
Chronicle
Email Newsletter
News & Noteworthy
Image Use Policy
Questions & Answers
Glossary of Terms
Download Guide
Get Adobe Reader
Tarantula Nebula: Drama In The Heart Of The Tarantula
Tarantula Nebula


Found in the nearby Large Magellanic Cloud, 30 Doradus is one of the largest massive star forming regions close to the Milky Way. Enormous stars in 30 Doradus, also known as the Tarantula Nebula, are producing intense radiation and searing winds of multimillion-degree gas that carve out gigantic bubbles in the surrounding cooler gas and dust. Other massive stars have raced through their evolution and exploded catastrophically as supernovae, expanding these bubbles into X-ray-brightened superbubbles. They leave behind pulsars as beacons of their former lives and expanding supernova remnants that trigger the collapse of giant clouds of dust and gas to form new generations of stars.

At the center of 30 Doradus lies the star cluster R136 at the intersection of three of these superbubbles. However, with ages only between one and two million years old, the stars in R136 are too young to be source of the supernovae that brighten the superbubbles in X-rays. Instead, R136 is most likely just the latest cluster to form in 30 Doradus. It may be as massive as it is because these superbubbles have combined to concentrate their gas in this region and thus triggered intense star formation there.

30 Doradus is about 160,000 light years from Earth in the southern constellation of Dorado. It spans 800 light years across and is incredibly bright in many wavelengths. If it were at the distance of the Orion Nebula (1,300 light years), 30 Doradus would span the area of 60 full Moons and its optical light would be bright enough to cast shadows at night on the Earth. This latest X-ray image of 30 Doradus represents almost 114,000 seconds, or 31 hours, of Chandra observing time - three times longer than previously recorded. In this image, red represents the lower range of X-rays that Chandra detects, the medium range is green, while the highest-energy X-rays are blue.

Fast Facts for Tarantula Nebula:
Credit  NASA/CXC/Penn State/L.Townsley, et al.
Release Date  December 11, 2008
Scale  Image is 24 arcmin across.
Category  Normal Stars & Star Clusters
Coordinates (J2000)  RA 05h 38m 42.9s | Dec -69° 06' 3"
Constellation  Dorado
Observation Date  09/21/1999 - 01/30/2006
Observation Time  32 hours
Obs. ID  22, 5906, 7263, 7264, 62520
Instrument  ACIS
Also Known As 30 Doradus
Color Code  Red (0.5-0.7 keV); Green (0.7-1.1 keV); Blue (1.1-2.0 keV)
X-ray
Distance Estimate  About 160,000 light years
distance arrow
Visitor Comments (0)
Rate This Image

Rating: 3.8/5
(510 votes cast)
Download & Share

Desktops

1024x768 - 265.5 kb
1280x1024 - 385.7 kb
1680x1050 - 445.9 kb
More Information
More Images
Optical Panoramic Image of
the Large Magellanic Cloud
Jpg, Tif
Illustration

More Images
Animation & Video
Annotated Chandra Image of 30 Doradus
Animation

More Animations
More Releases
Related Images
Orion Nebula
Orion Nebula
(03 Oct 07)

W3 Main
W3 Main
(18 Dec 06)

NGC 3576
NGC 3576
(27 Sep 06)

Trumpler 14
Trumpler 14
(31 Aug 05)

M17
M17
(14 Aug 03)

Related Information
Related Podcast
Top Rated Images
Brightest Cluster Galaxies

30 Doradus B

SDSS J1531+3414




FaceBookTwitterYouTubeFlickr