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About this Object

Object Name:

Tarantula Nebula, 30 Doradus, 30 Dor, NGC 2070

Object Description:

Emission Nebula in the Large Magellanic Cloud

Position (J2000):

R.A. 05h 38m 42s.36
Dec. -69° 06' 03".24

Constellation:

Doradus

Distance:

Approximately 170,000 light-years (52,000 parsecs)

Dimensions

This image is roughy 14.4 arcminutes (662 light-years or 204 parsecs) wide.

About the Data

Data Description:

This color image combines many exposures from Hubble Space Telescope's Advanced Camera for Surveys (ACS) and Wide Field Camera 3 (WFC3) and the European Southern Observatory's (ESO) 2.2m telescope in La Silla, Chile.

The ESO data are based on observations made with ESO Telescopes at the La Silla Observatory in Chile under program ID 076.C-0888, processed and released by the ESO VOS/ADP group. Observations were carried out by J. Alves, B. Vandame, and Y. Bialetski with the Wide Field Imager (WFI) and consist of a 2x2 WFI mosaic.

The ACS/WFC3 data are from the HST proposal 12499: D. Lennon (ESA/STScI) et al. THe science team comprises D. Lennon and E. Sabbi (ESA/STScI), J. Anderson, S. E. de Mink, R. van der Marel, T. Sohn, and N. Walborn (STScI), N. Bastian (Excellence Cluster, Munich), L. Bedin (INAF, Padua), E. Bressert (ESO), P. Crowther (University of Sheffield), A. de Koter (University of Amsterdam), C. Evans (UKATC/STFC, Edinburgh), A. Herrero (IAC, Tenerife),
N. Langer (AifA, Bonn), I. Platais (JHU) and H. Sana (University of Amsterdam).

Instrument:

HST: ACS/WFC and WFC3/UVIS
ESO 2.2m Telescope: WFI

Filters:

HST: ACS/WFC3: F775W (SDSS i)
ESO: OIII/8  and H-alpha/7

Exposure Dates:

HST data: October 2011
ESO: data: January 2006
About the Image

Image Credit:

NASA, ESA, D. Lennon (ESA/Hubble) and the Hubble Heritage Team (STScI/AURA)

Release Date:

April 17, 2012

Color:

This image is a composite of many separate exposures made by the ACS and WFC3 instruments on the Hubble Space Telescope along with ESO 2.2m ground-based observations. In total, two filters were used to sample narrow wavelength emission and two filters were used to sample broadband wavelengths. The color results from assigning different hues (colors) to each monochromatic image. In this case, the assigned colors are:

ESO: H-alpha (656nm)

red

ESO: average of H-alpha+[O III]

green

ESO: [O III] (502nm)

blue

HST/ACS + WFC3: F775W (SDSS i)

luminosity*

*The higher resolution, black & white Hubble image and the lower resolution, color ESO images were combined using a technique that takes luminosity (brightness) information from the black and white ACS/WFC3 image and color information from the composite ESO image. This preserves all of the higher-resolution detail from the Hubble data while rendering a color image representing the physical processes in this active region of space.

Orientation/Scale: