N11: Star Clouds of the LMC
Massive stars, abrasive winds, mountains of
dust, and
energetic light
sculpt one of the largest and most picturesque regions of
star formation in the
Local Group of Galaxies.
Known as N11,
the region is
visible on the upper right of many images of its home galaxy, the
Milky Way neighbor known as the
Large Magellanic Clouds (LMC).
The featured image was taken for
scientific purposes by the Hubble Space Telescope and
reprocessed for artistry by an amateur to win a
Hubble's Hidden Treasures competition.
Although the section imaged above is known as
NGC 1763,
the entire N11 emission nebula is second in LMC size only to the
Tarantula Nebula.
Compact globules of dark dust
housing emerging young stars are also visible around the image.
A new study of
variable stars in the LMC with
Hubble has helped to recalibrate the
distance scale
of the
observable universe, but resulted in a
slightly different scale
than
found using
the pervasive
cosmic microwave background.