30 Doradus: The Tarantula Nebula
30 Doradus is an immense star forming region in a nearby galaxy known
as the Large Magellanic Cloud.
Its
spidery appearance is responsible for its popular name, the
Tarantula Nebula, except that
this tarantula is about 1,000 light-years across, and
165,000 light-years away in the southern constellation
Dorado.
If it were at the distance of the
Orion Nebula,
the nearest stellar nursery to Earth, it
would appear to cover about 30 degrees
on the sky or about 60
full moons.
The
above image was taken with the
Big Throughput Camera
and is shown in representative colors.
The spindly arms of the
Tarantula Nebula surround the
NGC 2070 star cluster
which contains some of the intrinsically brightest,
most massive stars known.
This celestial
Tarantula is also seen near the site of the
closest recent Supernova.