The Tarantula Nebula is an 1100 light-year-wide, active star-forming region located within the Large Magellanic Cloud (one of the Milky Way's satellite galaxies). The LMC lies over 150,000 light-years away in the constellation Dorado; none of Dorado is visible from Baton Rouge. Giant stars within the Tarantula are producing intense x-radiation. The Tarantula itself is expanding, and the cause of the expansion is one of the current puzzles which astrophysicists are attempting to solve.
A composite image of the Tarantula Nebula (also known as 30 Doradus) incorporates infrared data from Spitzer and x-ray data from Chandra and is the October image in the 2014 Space calendar from the Smithsonian Institution.
This is the image, though the edges are cropped for the calendar:
http://chandra.harvard.edu/photo/2011/30dor/
Tarantula Nebula (30 Doradus)
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Christopher K.
- Posts: 5959
- Joined: October 12th, 2009, 3:28 pm
- Location: Baton Rouge, LA
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Christopher K.
- Posts: 5959
- Joined: October 12th, 2009, 3:28 pm
- Location: Baton Rouge, LA
Re: Tarantula Nebula (30 Doradus)
There are wondrous sights such as the Tarantula that can be seen from south Louisiana, given a natural sky devoid of most light pollution. What do we want the kids in our society to see from their backyards?
17 November 2018 APOD:
https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap181117.html
17 November 2018 APOD:
https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap181117.html