Latest news with #30Doradus
Yahoo
14-02-2025
- Science
- Yahoo
Astronomers have brought you a space Valentine: The Tarantula of the cosmos
When you buy through links on our articles, Future and its syndication partners may earn a commission. The petals of a cosmic Valentine's Day flower are unfurled in this image taken by NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory, revealing the most detailed X-ray image ever of the great star-forming nebula 30 Doradus in the Large Magellanic Cloud. The four blue petals depict hot gas that's been energized by winds of radiation coming from nascent hot, young stars — as well as by these stars' eventual death cries rooted in the supernova explosions that mark the ends of their lives a few million years later. Though 30 Doradus is ostensibly a star-forming region, it captures the entire life cycle of the most massive stars that live relatively short lives. In a way, these stars' cradles are also their graves. To emphasize the point, the most recent supernova to be visible to the naked eye, SN 1987A, exploded on the outskirts of 30 Doradus. And from the ashes of this and other dead stars, the beautiful cosmic flower has grown. The X-ray emission from Chandra is presented here in blue and green. That's false color, of course — a representation of X-rays that we cannot otherwise see with our eyes. It's also the deepest-ever X-ray observation of 30 Doradus — Chandra's previous effort amounted to about 1.3 days' worth of exposures, whereas this new image accounts for 23 days of observations. Among the diffuse gas are 3,615 discrete X-ray sources, ranging from supernova remnants, compact binaries featuring neutron stars or stellar-mass black holes, X-ray pulsars, infant T Tauri stars and massive stars in binary systems. In fact, the exposure time was so long that Chandra could see some of these X-ray sources changing over time, brought about by phenomena such as the orbital mechanics of binary systems. Thrown in for good measure is radio data from the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) in Chile that shows tendrils of dust depicted here in orange (again, false color) and Hubble Space Telescope optical data in yellow. Hubble has imaged 30 Doradus many times during its 35 years in space; the region is also known as the Tarantula Nebula because of its arachnid-like appearance in visible light. The Tarantula spins its web in the Large Magellanic Cloud, which is a satellite galaxy of our Milky Way, 160,000 light-years from us. The nebula is huge, spanning 650 light-years in diameter. It's one of the most intense star-forming regions around, and in fact the largest in the Local Group of galaxies, which include the Andromeda and Triangulum spiral galaxies. It has been able to grow so huge because, unlike those spiral galaxies, where the differential rotation of the galactic disk creates sheer forces that rip gas clouds apart if they reach a certain size, the Large Magellanic Cloud doesn't have the same kind of differential rotation where some parts rotate faster than fittingly for the largest star-forming region, it produces the most massive stars too. — 'Weird' game of cosmic tug-of-war in the Tarantula Nebula weaves up new stars — Astronomers image the star-birthing web of a cosmic Tarantula Nebula — New Tarantula Nebula mosaic captures spectacular star formation Inside 30 Doradus is a giant, young star cluster called NGC 2070, and at the heart of that cluster is a dense concentration of stars — a cluster within a cluster, if you will — called R136. At the core of R136 lies the most massive star known in the universe, called R136a1. It is a Wolf–Rayet star, which is a type of temperamental massive star that is highly unstable and sheds its skin in violent pulsations. Its current mass is about 200 times the mass of our sun, but when it formed just over a million years ago, it had a mass about 325 times greater than our sun, and has expelled the difference in mass over its lifetime. If 30 Doradus is a flower, then the expanding debris of supernova explosions within it carry the flower's pollen. Stars are element factories, fusing increasingly heavy elements in their central nuclear reactors, and producing even more precious metals in the ferocity of their supernova explosions. The debris from these stellar conflagrations is carried far and wide across space, germinating new sites of star and planet formation. If you want to learn more about how this image was created, and what science it can teach us, you can read the paper about these results that was published in July 2024 in The Astrophysical Journal Supplement Series.
Yahoo
14-02-2025
- Science
- Yahoo
NASA Unveils Tarantula Nebula as 'Stellar Bouquet' for Valentine's Day
The Tarantula Nebula sounds like it would be a better fit for Halloween than Valentine's Day. But just look at it. You can see why NASA thinks it's an appropriate astronomical gift for a day of love and flowers. NASA shared a view of the nebula, more formally known as 30 Doradus (or 30 Dor), on Feb. 12, describing it as a "stellar bouquet." The image combines data from NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory, the Hubble Space Telescope and the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array, a telescope in Chile. Some views of 30 Dor -- like this one from the James Webb Space Telescope -- highlight the nebula's spidery spindles of dust and gas filaments. The new image looks like a purplish puff of cosmic cotton candy more than an arachnid. The nebula is located 160,000 light-years away in a neighboring galaxy, the Large Magellanic Cloud. The nebula is a stellar nursery with a notable cluster of massive stars at its center. "The massive young stars in 30 Dor send cosmically strong winds out into space," NASA said. "Along with the matter and energy ejected by stars that have previously exploded, these winds have carved out an eye-catching display of arcs, pillars and bubbles." Some of these stars are just 1 to 2 million years old. Compare that to our sun at 5 billion years old. Chandra's contribution to the new image is significant. It represents 23 days of observations seeking out sources of X-rays. It found thousands. "The 3,615 X-ray sources detected by Chandra include a mixture of massive stars, double-star systems, bright stars that are still in the process of forming, and much smaller clusters of young stars," NASA said. Look for the blue and green parts of the image to find Chandra's share of the view. There's a lot of science behind the beauty of 30 Dor. A team of astronomers and astrophysicists used Chandra's X-ray data for a study published in The Astrophysical Journal Supplement Series last year. The paper describes 30 Dor as "a microscope on starburst astrophysics." The long observation time allowed the researchers to track changes in the stars, including the movements of binary stars. If you like your Valentine's sweetness with a side of science, then this "bouquet of budding young stars" is for you. Here's a potential note for your amor to go along with the image: "Our love is like a massive double-star system in 30 Doradus. We make a stellar pair!"
Yahoo
26-01-2025
- Science
- Yahoo
NASA and ESA share a breathtaking Hubble image of the Tarantula Nebula's outer edge
The Hubble Space Telescope is still trucking along more than 30 years after its launch, observing the universe and sending home images for us to marvel at. This week, NASA and ESA highlighted an image captured by Hubble of the highly productive Tarantula Nebula (officially named 30 Doradus) in the Large Magellanic Cloud, and it's a sight to behold. 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 — HUBBLE (@HUBBLE_space) January 23, 2025 The Tarantula Nebula is 'the largest and most productive star-forming region in the local universe,' with stars roughly 200 times as massive as the sun at its center, according to NASA. This Hubble view gives us a look at the outskirts of the nebula, revealing layers of colorful gas and stars. The Tarantula Nebula sits within the Large Magellanic Cloud, a nearby dwarf galaxy. While the final result we see is filled with brilliant colors, Hubble's images initially come back in grayscale. As NASA has explained, 'scientists can create a composite color image by taking exposures using different color filters on the telescope, assigning a color to each filter that corresponds to the wavelength of that filter, and combining the images.' The new image of the Tarantula Nebula doesn't just represent visible light, but ultraviolet and infrared too. In such a case, colors are assigned to those wavelengths we can't normally see.
Yahoo
26-01-2025
- Science
- Yahoo
NASA and ESA share a breathtaking Hubble image of the Tarantula Nebula's outer edge
The Hubble Space Telescope is still trucking along more than 30 years after its launch, observing the universe and sending home images for us to marvel at. This week, NASA and ESA highlighted an image captured by Hubble of the highly productive Tarantula Nebula (officially named 30 Doradus) in the Large Magellanic Cloud, and it's a sight to behold. The Tarantula Nebula is 'the largest and most productive star-forming region in the local universe,' with stars roughly 200 times as massive as the sun at its center, according to NASA. This Hubble view gives us a look at the outskirts of the nebula, revealing layers of colorful gas and stars. The Tarantula Nebula sits within the Large Magellanic Cloud, a nearby dwarf galaxy. While the final result we see is filled with brilliant colors, Hubble's images initially come back in grayscale. As NASA has explained, 'scientists can create a composite color image by taking exposures using different color filters on the telescope, assigning a color to each filter that corresponds to the wavelength of that filter, and combining the images.' The new image of the Tarantula Nebula doesn't just represent visible light, but ultraviolet and infrared too. In such a case, colors are assigned to those wavelengths we can't normally see.
Yahoo
26-01-2025
- Science
- Yahoo
NASA and ESA share a breathtaking Hubble image of the Tarantula Nebula's outer edge
The Hubble Space Telescope is still trucking along more than 30 years after its launch, observing the universe and sending home images for us to marvel at. This week, NASA and ESA highlighted an image captured by Hubble of the highly productive Tarantula Nebula (officially named 30 Doradus) in the Large Magellanic Cloud, and it's a sight to behold. 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 — HUBBLE (@HUBBLE_space) January 23, 2025 The Tarantula Nebula is 'the largest and most productive star-forming region in the local universe,' with stars roughly 200 times as massive as the sun at its center, according to NASA. This Hubble view gives us a look at the outskirts of the nebula, revealing layers of colorful gas and stars. The Tarantula Nebula sits within the Large Magellanic Cloud, a nearby dwarf galaxy. While the final result we see is filled with brilliant colors, Hubble's images initially come back in grayscale. As NASA has explained, 'scientists can create a composite color image by taking exposures using different color filters on the telescope, assigning a color to each filter that corresponds to the wavelength of that filter, and combining the images.' The new image of the Tarantula Nebula doesn't just represent visible light, but ultraviolet and infrared too. In such a case, colors are assigned to those wavelengths we can't normally see.
