The Hubble Space Telescope continues to function more than 30 years after its launch, studying the universe and sending new images to Earth. NASA and ESA have released new images of the Tarantula Nebula in the Large Magellanic Cloud.
The Large Magellanic Cloud may be only 10-20% as massive as our Milky Way galaxy, but it boasts some of the most impressive star-forming regions in the nearby Universe! 1/3 pic.twitter.com/juulDT44mD
— HUBBLE (@HUBBLE_space) January 23, 2025
The Large Magellanic Cloud is a dwarf galaxy located at a distance of about 160,000 light-years in the constellations Dorado and Minor.
The mass of the Large Magellanic Cloud is only 10-20% of the Milky Way, but this galaxy produces the most stars in the space accessible to us. The Tarantula Nebula shown in the photo is the largest and most productive star formation zone in this galaxy. In its center are the most massive known stars, whose mass is about 200 times that of the Sun.
In this image, part of the nebula appears calm with blue gas and brownish-orange dust patches. The stars inside and outside the dust clouds appear redder because the dust absorbs and scatters blue light more than red light. As a result, the telescope captures more red light, so we observe stars that appear redder than they really are.
A high resolution image with zoom is available here.