This picture taken by the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope shows the Tarantula Nebula, also known as 30 Doradus. This is a massive region of ionized hydrogen gas that is forming stars. And is located 161,000 light-years away from Earth in the Large Magellanic Cloud. The region’s bright, new stars surround by turbulent clouds of gas and dust.

Hubble is familiar with the Tarantula Nebula. The star-forming region is the brightest in our galaxy. It is home to the most vibrant and massive stars known. It is an ideal laboratory for testing theories of star formation and evolution. Hubble has a wealth of images from this region. Recently, the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope explored this region and discovered thousands of young stars that had never before been seen.

Two different observing proposals combined to create this new image. The first proposal aimed to examine the characteristics of dust particles in the thick clouds of darkness in this image of the Tarantula Nebula and in the space between stars. This hypothesis, dubbed Scylla by astronomers, explains how interstellar dust interacts with starlight in a variety of settings. It works in tandem with Ulysses, another Hubble program that characterizes stars. This image also contains data from an observing program that is studying star formation in early universe conditions and cataloging the stars of the Tarantula Nebula for future research with Webb.

Published by: Sky Headlines