The Hubble Telescope gave researchers the best-ever peek at the Tarantula Nebula, an area in our universe filled with dark dust, star clusters, and glowing gas. The somewhat creepy-looking mass of stars is being observed by researchers as part of the Hubble Tarantula Treasury Project (HTTP).
The image featured today at the 223rd meeting of the American Astronomical Society in Washington, DC, was captured using near-infrared data from the Advanced Camera for Surveys (ACS) and Hubble's Wide Field Camera 3 (WFC3). The combination of the infrared filters caused the appearance of a purple haze within the image's frame. The image shows bright stars distributed throughout the nebula and some deep red mass of dust.
The area captured by the Hubble Telescope is classified as an HII region. HII regions are areas where large clouds of partially ionised hydrogen are present, thus creating a birthing place for stars. In the image, the area left of the center features a star cluster called the R136. The R136 was initially classified as a star, but astronomers couldn't figure out how a single star could have the power to ionise a big mass of HII region. Later on, the researchers figured out that the R136 is actually a cluster of stars.
The Tarantula Nebula is located within the Large Magelllanic Cloud, which is one of the closest galactic neighbors that we have. Over the years, the Hubble Telescope was able to capture the image of the Tarantula Nebula. Each of the pictures taken between 2004-2012 shows a new discovery about the nebula but this latest image provides the best and clearest view so far.
Currently, researchers involved in the HTTP are capturing the images of many other stars located within the Tarantula Nebula with the goal to map out their exact locations and basic properties as cosmic bodies. The observations gathered from this project will give researchers data to help them further analyze the structure of the Tarantula Nebula.
