Tarantula Nebula – Astronomy Now

Balloon-borne telescope captures Tarantula Nebula in first research images

21 April 2023 Astronomy Now

A small telescope operating in the near-space environment brings sharp vision and a wide field of view to the search for subtle signs of dark matter.

Astronomers use Hubble to learn more about the birth of massive suns

23 March 2020 Astronomy Now

Astronomers are using the Hubble Space Telescope to study massive stars in a stellar nursery near the Tarantula Nebula to learn why most form in clusters but some appear to form in isolation.

Retiring Spitzer’s IR views of the Tarantula a fitting legacy

28 January 2020 Astronomy Now

The Spitzer Space Telescope, one of NASA’s original “Great Observatories,” is being retired after more than 16 years of infrared observations, but not before providing another look at the spectacular Tarantula Nebula.

Hubble peers into the maelstrom

5 September 2016 Astronomy Now

This NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope image shows a stellar nursery known as N159 — a maelstrom of glowing gas and dark dust within one of the Milky Way’s satellite galaxies, the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC). N159 is located over 160,000 light-years away. It resides just south of the Tarantula Nebula, another massive star-forming complex within the LMC.

Hubble unveils monster stars in the Tarantula Nebula

17 March 2016 Astronomy Now

Astronomers using the unique ultraviolet capabilities of the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope have identified nine monster stars with masses over 100 times the mass of the Sun in the star cluster R136, located in the Tarantula Nebula within the Large Magellanic Cloud. This makes it the largest sample of very massive stars identified to date.

NASA’s Fermi satellite detects first gamma-ray pulsar in another galaxy

13 November 2015 Astronomy Now

Researchers using NASA’s Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope have discovered the first gamma-ray pulsar in a galaxy other than our own. Known as PSR J0540-6919, the object sets a new record for the most luminous gamma-ray pulsar known. The pulsar lies in the outskirts of the Tarantula Nebula in the Large Magellanic Cloud, a small galaxy that is located 163,000 light-years away.

Final kiss of two stars heading for catastrophe

21 October 2015 Astronomy Now

Using ESO’s Very Large Telescope, an international team of astronomers have found the hottest and most massive double star with components so close that they touch each other. The two stars in the extreme system VFTS 352 could be heading for a dramatic end, during which the two stars either coalesce to create a single giant star, or form a binary black hole.