Celestial hemisphere:  Southern  ·  Constellation: Dorado (Dor)  ·  Contains:  30 Dor Cluster  ·  HD37722  ·  NGC 2042  ·  NGC 2044  ·  NGC 2050  ·  NGC 2055  ·  NGC 2060  ·  NGC 2069  ·  NGC 2070  ·  NGC 2081  ·  NGC 2091  ·  NGC 2092  ·  Tarantula Nebula
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Tarantula Nebula NGC 2070, Daniel Stern
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Tarantula Nebula NGC 2070

Getting plate-solving status, please wait...
Tarantula Nebula NGC 2070, Daniel Stern
Powered byPixInsight

Tarantula Nebula NGC 2070

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Description

Each time I process an image there is a mouse click along the way that reveals the result. That mouse click on this project was mesmerizing. I hope you like it.There are a lot of superlatives used when describing the Tarantula Nebula. In addition to being the largest known active star formation region in our galactic neighborhood, it is huge. It spans 1,000 light-years. Like most numbers in astronomy, it’s hard to put that into perspective. For comparison, the Milky Way’s Orion Nebula (M42), the finest example of a star-forming region visible from mid-northern latitudes, is a mere 25 light-years in diameter. To put it another way, if you were to place the Tarantula at the same distance as the Orion Nebula, it would cover as much sky as 75 Full Moons placed side by side — enough to stretch 40 percent of the way from the horizon to the zenith. And it would be bright enough to cast noticeable shadows.

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Tarantula Nebula NGC 2070, Daniel Stern