This is an image of 30 Doradus, also known as the Tarantula Nebula. With a span of over 1000 light years, it is the largest star forming region in the local galazy. It gets its name from spider-web like appearance of its tendrils of gas and dust. The Tarantula Nebula is found in the Large Megellanic cloud, and despite of its distance from Earth--about 170.00 light years away--it is still bright enough to be seen with the naked eye. 30 Doradus gets its brilliant brightness from the many hot, bright stars that make up a significant portion of its stellar population. Most of these stars are located in the central cluster.
The image was made with the intention of staying true to the original data. The colors were selected with careful attention to the color of the image filters, with some tweaks to bring out detail and make the image more pleasing to the eye. This image also has some adjustments to level, saturation, and constrast to make the gaseous tendrils of the "spider web" pop out against the black sky.
No comments:
Post a Comment