Your Weekly Bit of Space Awe from Hubble....

[n2doc]

By Adam Mann


Millions of young stars shine brightly in this enormous stellar nursery at the heart of the Tarantula Nebula.

The Hubble space telescope captured this amazing panorama, which reveals intricate details about the expanse known as 30 Doradus. Located about 170,000 light-years away in the Large Magellanic Cloud — a small galaxy orbiting our Milky Way — 30 Doradus is one of the largest and most prolific star-forming regions in our galactic neck of the woods.

The region is so huge that, if it were as close to us as the Orion Nebula (the nearest stellar nursery to Earth, about 1,300 light-years away), it would be the size of 60 full moons in the sky and glow so brightly that it could cast shadows on the ground.


Though 30 Doradus isn’t quite that close, Hubble can still resolve the individual stars inside the region, allowing astronomers to study the lives of stars in detail.


more

http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2012/04/hubble-tarantula-nebula/

The new image was released Apr. 17 in honor of Hubble’s 22nd year in orbit. You can download the image at 4,000 x 3,200 pixels, but if you want to really zoom in on the picture, download the insanely large 20,323 x 16,259-pixel version. (Warning: It’s 643 MB.)

[sinkingfeeling]

1. One can really see the 'tarantula' in that picture.

[madokie]

2. What makes up the part that looks like wispy clouds

Is it tiny stars that are so close together as to cause that vision?

[n2doc]

3. Clouds of gas and dust in space n/t

[madokie]

4. OK, thanks