File:Caldwell 103 - 3.jpg

English: Caldwell 103 is a treasure of the southern night sky. Also cataloged as NGC 2070 and often called the Tarantula Nebula or 30 Doradus, this chimerical structure is nestled in the Large Magellanic Cloud, a dwarf galaxy that orbits the Milky Way. This Hubble image has caught the star-forming factory mid-frenzy, as it churns out stars at a furious pace. Individual members range from small, embryonic stars still shrouded in thick cocoons of gas and dust, to stellar behemoths doomed to live fast and die young in ferocious supernova explosions.

In the Tarantula Nebula, the massive stars are carving deep cavities in the surrounding material by unleashing a torrent of ultraviolet light, which is winnowing away at the enveloping hydrogen gas cloud in which the stars were born. Besides sculpting the gaseous terrain, the brilliant stars may be triggering a new generation of offspring. When the ultraviolet radiation hits dense walls of gas, it creates shocks, which may generate a new wave of star birth. In fact, scientists believe that a shock wave from a nearby supernova may have caused the cloud of gas and dust that the Sun formed within to collapse, leading to the creation of our solar system. If correct, that means we owe our lives to the violent death of a massive neighboring star.

This 2011 image is one of the largest mosaics ever assembled from Hubble exposures and includes observations taken by Hubble’s Wide Field Camera 3 and Advanced Camera for Surveys. The colors trace different elements in the hot gas that dominates the image, with red signifying hydrogen and blue representing oxygen.

The Tarantula Nebula was first recorded by Nicolas-Louis de Lacaille in 1751. Though it is located a staggering 170,000 light-years away, the Tarantula Nebula has a magnitude of 4, making it visible to the unaided eye and a spectacular target for binoculars. Through medium and large telescopes, the nebula’s spider-like structure becomes apparent. To get the best view of the Tarantula, visit a dark-sky site in the Southern Hemisphere around the beginning of the year and look for it within the bounds of the Large Magellanic Cloud, located in the constellation Dorado.

For more information about Hubble’s observations of Caldwell 103, see:

hubblesite.org/contents/news-releases/2012/news-2012-01.html

spacetelescope.org/news/heic1402/

hubblesite.org/contents/news-releases/1999/news-1999-12.h...

www.nasa.gov/image-feature/Goddard/2017/hubbles-bubbles-i...

hubblesite.org/contents/news-releases/2016/news-2016-10.html

spacetelescope.org/images/potw1441a/

spacetelescope.org/images/potw1232a/

spacetelescope.org/news/heic1105/

hubblesite.org/contents/news-releases/2010/news-2010-14.html

spacetelescope.org/news/heic0416/

hubblesite.org/contents/news-releases/1999/news-1999-33.html

Credit: NASA, ESA, D. Lennon and E. Sabbi (ESA/STScI), J. Anderson, S. E. de Mink, R. van der Marel, T. Sohn, and N. Walborn (STScI), N. Bastian (Excellence Cluster, Munich), L. Bedin (INAF, Padua), E. Bressert (ESO), P. Crowther (University of Sheffield), A. de Koter (University of Amsterdam), C. Evans (UKATC/STFC, Edinburgh), A. Herrero (IAC, Tenerife), N. Langer (AifA, Bonn), I. Platais (JHU) and H. Sana (University of Amsterdam)

For Hubble's Caldwell catalog site and information on how to find these objects in the night sky, visit:

www.nasa.gov/content/goddard/hubble-s-caldwell-catalog