Tarantula Nebula NGC 2070 (Ray Johnson)

Celestial hemisphere: Southern · Constellation: Dorado (Dor) · Contains: 30 Dor Cluster · NGC 2042 · NGC 2044 · NGC 2048 · NGC 2050 · NGC 2055 · NGC 2060 · NGC 2069 · NGC 2070 · NGC 2074 · NGC 2080 · NGC 2081 · NGC 2091 · NGC 2092 · NGC 2093 · NGC 2100 · NGC 2102 · Tarantula Nebula

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Tarantula Nebula NGC 2070

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Tarantula Nebula NGC 2070

I think the Tarantula Nebula is one of the most fascinating objects in the night sky, and while I have photographed it a number of times both in colour and monochrome with filters, I never get tired of seeing what I can bring out of its incredible complex structures. It is about 160,000 light years from Earth. The central region in the nebula is a "starburst" region, where massive stars form in extremely close proximity and at a rate far higher than in the rest of the galaxy. This area is actually less than 1 light-year across (about 6 trillion miles, or 9 trillion kilometers), but there are more than 40 massive stars, each containing at least 50 times the mass of our Sun. The nebula contains more than 800,000 stars and protostars. The newly formed stars are frequently hidden within clouds of dust and can only be seen in infrared wavelengths. The total mass of the nebula is about 1,000,000 solar masses, and its diameter is 550 light-years, making it the largest region of ionized gas in the entire Local Group of galaxies. It is so big that if you were to place the Tarantula Nebula at the same distance as the Orion Nebula (that is, relatively close by at just 1,500 light years), 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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Distribution of astrophotographers

This table shows the number of distinct astrophotographers who have been assigned and IOTD/TP award compared to the total number of images awarded.
	Distinct awarded users	Total awarded images
Image of the day
Top picks
Top pick nominations

Distribution of subject types

This table shows the distribution of awards per subject type, compared to the popularity of images of that subject type.
	Image of the day	Top pick	Top pick nominations	Total submitted
Deep sky
Solar system
Extremely wide field
Star trails
Northern lights
Noctilucent clouds
Landscape

Distribution of data sources

This table shows the distribution of awards per data source, compared to the popularity of images acquired from that data source.
	Image of the day	Top pick	Top pick nominations	Total submitted
Backyard
Traveller
Own remote observatory
Amateur hosting facility
Public amaeteur data
Professional, scientific grade data
Mix of multiple sources
Other
Unknown

The “AstroBin Image of the Day and Top Picks”, or IOTD/TP, is a long-running system to promote beautiful, interesting, peculiar, or otherwise amazing astrophotographs, with a focus on technical excellence. Learn more.

Submitted The date and time when you submitted this image for IOTD/TP consideration.	...
Views by Submitters (available since September 19th, 2023) Every image is assigned to 50% of available Submitters. In the event that at least 80% of them don't view the image before its time in the IOTD/TP process expires, it's assigned to the other 50% of Submitters and the process begins anew.
Promotions by Submitters When 3 distinct Submitters promote the image, it moves on to the next stage of the process: evaluation for Top Pick status. This requirement, in addition to anonymization of images and distribution to only a subset of them, prevents biases and ensures that the best images are selected.
Promotions by Reviewers When 3 distinct Reviewers promote the image, it moves on to the next stage of the process: evaluation for IOTD status.
Early dismissal Staff members have a lot of images to inspect on a daily basis, and they can dismiss images if they believe they don't meet the requirements for IOTD/TP selection. If an image is dismissed 5 times, it's removed from the process. This streamlines the process and ensures that any bias present in promotions could be overruled by other staff members.

Status	Advanced success
Started	...
Astrometry.net job	5259212
PixInsight job	NC5RIVCFYXBLRDDGK8IY1WOL8WHE9LKL
PixInsight queue size	n/a
PixInsight stage	TASK_LOG

RA (center)	05h38m30s.34
RA (top/left)	05h43m36s.90
RA (top/right)	05h41m20s.59
RA (bottom/right)	05h33m36s.59
RA (bottom/left)	05h35m30s.79

Dec (center)	-69°07′32″.6
Dec (top/left)	-69°35′14″.8
Dec (top/right)	-68°31′59″.3
Dec (bottom/right)	-68°39′17″.6
Dec (bottom/left)	-69°42′51″.10

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Tarantula Nebula NGC 2070

Tarantula Nebula NGC 2070

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Tarantula Nebula NGC 2070

Tarantula Nebula NGC 2070

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