ESO: A Crowded Neighbourhood (LMC)

[bystander]

A Crowded Neighbourhood
ESO Photo Release | VST | 2018 May 30

Click to view full size image 1 or image 2

The Rich Region around the Tarantula Nebula in the Large Magellanic Cloud (Credit: ESO)

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Glowing brightly about 160 000 light-years away, the Tarantula Nebula is the most spectacular feature of the Large Magellanic Cloud, a satellite galaxy to our Milky Way. The VLT Survey Telescope at ESO’s Paranal Observatory in Chile has imaged this region and its rich surroundings in exquisite detail. It reveals a cosmic landscape of star clusters, glowing gas clouds and the scattered remains of supernova explosions. This is the sharpest image ever of this entire field.

Taking advantage of the capacities of the VLT Survey Telescope (VST) at ESO’s Paranal Observatory in Chile, astronomers captured this very detailed new image of the Tarantula Nebula and its numerous neighbouring nebulae and star clusters. The Tarantula, which is also known as 30 Doradus, is the brightest and most energetic star-forming region in the Local Group of galaxies.

The Tarantula Nebula, at the top of this image, spans more than 1000 light-years and is located in the constellation of Dorado (The Dolphinfish) in the far southern sky. This stunning nebula is part of the Large Magellanic Cloud, a dwarf galaxy that measures about 14 000 light-years across. The Large Magellanic Cloud is one of the closest galaxies to the Milky Way. ...

[Ann]

Click to view full size image

Extremely red star T Lyrae.

The color balance of the ESO picture is pretty red.

If you go to this page to see some really large versions of the LMC and Tarantula Nebula picture, you can see how the red giant stars, whose color as seen by the human eye is typically yellow-orange, look so red in the ESO image that only some bright red carbon stars like T Lyrae can outdo their ruddiness.

But it is most unlikely that all the shockingly red stars in the ESO picture are carbon stars like T Lyrae. So the color balance of the ESO image is red, as I said. Or at least, the red channel is pretty saturated.

Ann