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In Tarantula Territory
June 10, 2002Famous Southern Nebula Imaged from La Silla
The largest emission nebula in the sky, the Tarantula Nebula (also
known as NGC 2070 or 30 Doradus) is located in the Large Magellanic
Cloud (LMC), one of the satellite galaxies to our own Milky Way
system. Seen far down in the southern sky at a distance of about
170,000 light-years, this beautiful nebula measures more than 1000
light-years across and extends over more than one third of a degree,
almost, but not quite the size of the full moon. It received its
descriptive name because of the unusual shape.
It is a splendid object with a central cluster of hot and luminous
young stars that powers strong emission from hydrogen and oxygen gas,
making the Tarantula Nebula an easy and impressive target for
observations, even with the unaided eye. It is well visible from ESO`s
mountain observatories at La Silla and Paranal in Chile and it has
been the object of innumerable research programmes with many different
telescopes.
New images of the Tarantula Nebula have now been obtained with the
Wide-Field Imager (WFI) on the MPG/ESO 2.2-m telescope at the La Silla
Observatory. As the name indicates, the WFI has a comparatively large
field-of-view, 34 x 34 arcmin^2, and it is therefore well suited to
show the full extent of this stunning nebula. A spectacular composite
colour photo has been produced from 15 individual WFI-exposures
obtained in September 2000.
A large number of different and colourful objects are seen in this
amazing image. The very complex nebulosity is prominent in most of the
field; it predominantly emits red light from hydrogen atoms (the
H-alpha spectral line at wavelength 656.2 nm) and green-blue light
from hydrogen atoms (H-beta line at 486.2 nm) and oxygen ions (two [O
III] lines at 495.7 and 500.7 nm). This emission is excited by the
strong ultraviolet (UV) radiation emitted by hot young stars in the
central cluster (known as "R136") which were born 2-3 million years
ago at the heart of the Tarantula Nebula.
Throughout the field, there are several other smaller, young open
stellar clusters that are still embedded in nebulosity. Two globular
clusters can also be seen, and the entire field is full of stars of
very different colours and luminosity - most of them belong to the
LMC, but some are foreground objects in our own galaxy, the Milky Way.
The images were prepared by Mischa Schirmer at the Institut fuer
Astrophysik und Extraterrestrische Forschung der Universitaet Bonn
(IAEF) by means of a pipeline specialised for reduction of multiple
CCD wide-field imaging camera data. The observations at La Silla were
performed by Thomas Erben and Marco Lombardi (both IAEF Bonn).
The text of this ESO Press Release, with seven photos, is available at:
http://www.eso.org/outreach/press-rel/pr-2002/phot-14-02.html
European Southern Observatory (ESO)
young stars that powers strong emission from hydrogen and oxygen gas,
making the Tarantula Nebula an easy and impressive target for
observations, even with the unaided eye. It is well visible from ESO`s
mountain observatories at La Silla and Paranal in Chile and it has
been the object of innumerable research programmes with many different
telescopes.
New images of the Tarantula Nebula have now been obtained with the
Wide-Field Imager (WFI) on the MPG/ESO 2.2-m telescope at the La Silla
Observatory. As the name indicates, the WFI has a comparatively large
field-of-view, 34 x 34 arcmin^2, and it is therefore well suited to
show the full extent of this stunning nebula. A spectacular composite
colour photo has been produced from 15 individual WFI-exposures
obtained in September 2000.
A large number of different and colourful objects are seen in this
amazing image. The very complex nebulosity is prominent in most of the
field; it predominantly emits red light from hydrogen atoms (the
H-alpha spectral line at wavelength 656.2 nm) and green-blue light
from hydrogen atoms (H-beta line at 486.2 nm) and oxygen ions (two [O
III] lines at 495.7 and 500.7 nm). This emission is excited by the
strong ultraviolet (UV) radiation emitted by hot young stars in the
central cluster (known as "R136") which were born 2-3 million years
ago at the heart of the Tarantula Nebula.
Throughout the field, there are several other smaller, young open
stellar clusters that are still embedded in nebulosity. Two globular
clusters can also be seen, and the entire field is full of stars of
very different colours and luminosity - most of them belong to the
LMC, but some are foreground objects in our own galaxy, the Milky Way.
The images were prepared by Mischa Schirmer at the Institut fuer
Astrophysik und Extraterrestrische Forschung der Universitaet Bonn
(IAEF) by means of a pipeline specialised for reduction of multiple
CCD wide-field imaging camera data. The observations at La Silla were
performed by Thomas Erben and Marco Lombardi (both IAEF Bonn).
The text of this ESO Press Release, with seven photos, is available at:
http://www.eso.org/outreach/press-rel/pr-2002/phot-14-02.html
European Southern Observatory (ESO)
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