Astronomers describe the star birth web of the cosmic Tarantula Nebula
This composite image of the star-forming region of Doradus 30 — also known as the Tarantula Nebula — reveals areas of cold gas that could collapse to form stars. (Image credit: ESO, ALMA (ESO/NAOJ/NRAO)/Wong et al., ESO/M.-R. Cioni/VISTA Magellanic Cloud survey.) The newly released image of 30 Doradus, also known as the Tarantula Nebula, reveals thin, spiderweb-like strands of gas that reveal a dramatic battle between gravity and stellar energy that could give astronomers an idea of how massive stars have shaped this star formation. regions and why they continue to be born in these molecular clouds. This high-resolution image of the Tarantula Nebula, located 170,000 light-years from Earth, consists of data collected by the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA). Located in the Large Magellanic Cloud, a satellite galaxy of the Milky Way, the Tarantula Nebula is one of the brightest star-forming regions in our galaxy’s backyard. It’s also one of the most act...