English: What’s that caught in our Webb? A giant space tarantula!

Take a moment to stare into thousands of never-before-seen young stars in the Tarantula Nebula. The James Webb Space Telescope reveals details of the structure and composition of the nebula, as well as dozens of background galaxies.

Stellar nursery 30 Doradus gets its nickname of the Tarantula Nebula from its long, dusty filaments. Located in the Large Magellanic Cloud galaxy, it’s the largest and brightest star-forming region near our own galaxy, plus home to the hottest, most massive stars known.

At the longer wavelengths of light captured by its Mid-Infrared Instrument (MIRI), Webb focuses on the area surrounding the central star cluster and unveils a very different view of the Tarantula Nebula. In this light, the young hot stars of the cluster fade in brilliance, and glowing gas and dust come forward. Abundant hydrocarbons light up the surfaces of the dust clouds, shown in blue and purple.

Why is this nebula interesting to astronomers? Unlike in our Milky Way, the Tarantula Nebula is producing new stars at a furious rate. Though close to us, it is similar to the gigantic star-forming regions from when the universe was only a few billion years old, and star formation was at its peak — a period known as “cosmic noon.” Since the Tarantula is close to us, it is easy to study in detail to help us learn more about the universe’s past.

Read more: www.nasa.gov/feature/goddard/2022/a-cosmic-tarantula-caug...

Image Credit: NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI, Webb ERO Production Team

Image description:

A space image captured by the Webb telescope. Wispy pale pink and yellow nebula clouds are highlighted with purple, ghostly pink, and glowing electric blue streaks. These clouds surround a large black cavity. A few small blue stars are sprinkled at the right edge of the cavity and in the cloud. A large clump of blue dust floats amid the small blue stars. There are a few occasional bright pink spots and larger, brighter white stars. One large blue star stands out at the top of the cavity, featuring short blue spikes and snowflake-like arms. A couple other stars in the cloud also appear like tiny snowflakes instead of points of light.