Above and Beyond: The Tarantula Nebula

 

 

Produced by the Space Telescope Science Institute’s Office of Public Outreach.

 

All images, illustrations, and videos courtesy of NASA, ESA, and STScI except:

 

·       Image of reflection nebula NGC 1788 courtesy of T.A. Rector (University of Alaska Anchorage), H. Schweiker (WIYN and NOAO/AURA/NSF) & S. Pakzad (NOAO/AURA/NSF)

·       Taurus constellation drawing from Firmamentum Sobiescianum sive Uranographia by Johannes Hevelius, courtesy of the United States Naval Observatory

·       Orion constellation photo courtesy of Akira Fujii

·       Illustration of circumstellar disk and jets courtesy of ESO/L. Calçada/M. Kornmesser

·       Image of HH 34 jets courtesy of ESO

·       Star formation animation courtesy of Aimei Kutt (Brown University/STScI)

 

 

Written by Vanessa Thomas

Designed by John Godfrey

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(DESCRIPTION) 

A white nebula with long thin tendrils. 

 

Text, TARANTULA NEBULA. HUBBLE SPACE TELESCOPE. 

 

Like a celestial Hollywood, the Tarantula Nebula is a sprawling hub of young, vivacious stars. 

 

Some stars in the nebula gather together in clusters. 

 

Throughout the nebula, these stars are shaping their environment. 

 

Their talent is to produce ultraviolet radiation and winds of charged particles that eat away at the cloud from which they formed. 

 

Their cosmic resume includes a variety of ridges, pillars, and valleys carved out of the nebula's gas and dust.