This NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope image shows a portion of the Tarantula Nebula.
ESA/Hubble & NASA, C. Murray
This NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope image captures incredible details in the dusty clouds of a star-forming factory called the Tarantula Nebula. Most of the nebulae Hubble images are in our galaxy, but this nebula is in the Large Magellanic Cloud, a dwarf galaxy located about 160,000 light-years away in the constellations Dorado and Mensa.
The Large Magellanic Cloud is the largest of the dozens of small satellite galaxies that orbit the Milky Way. The Tarantula Nebula is the largest and brightest star-forming region, not just in the Large Magellanic Cloud, but in the entire group of nearby galaxies to which the Milky Way belongs.
The Tarantula Nebula is home to the most massive stars known, some roughly 200 times as massive as our Sun. This image is very close to a rare type of star called a Wolf–Rayet star. Wolf–Rayet stars are massive stars that have lost their outer shell of hydrogen and are extremely hot and luminous, powering dense and furious stellar winds.
This nebula is a frequent target for Hubble, whose multiwavelength capabilities are critical for capturing sculptural details in the nebula’s dusty clouds. The data used to create this image come from an observing program called Scylla, named for a multi-headed sea monster from Greek mythology. The Scylla program was designed to complement another Hubble observing program called ULLYSES (Ultraviolet Legacy Library of Young Stars as Essential Standards). ULLYSES targets massive young stars in the Small and Large Magellanic Clouds, while Scylla investigates the structures of gas and dust that surround these stars.
Image credit: ESA/Hubble & NASA, C. Murray
这张由美国国家航空航天局（NASA）和欧洲航天局（ESA）哈勃太空望远镜拍摄的图像显示了狼蛛星云的一部分。
图片来源: ESA/Hubble & NASA, C. Murray
这张由美国国家航空航天局（NASA）和欧洲航天局（ESA）联合运营的哈勃空间望远镜拍摄的图像，展现了狼蛛星云中尘埃云的惊人细节。与大多数哈勃观测到的位于银河系内的星云不同，这一星云位于大麦哲伦星系——一个距离约16万光年的矮星系，分布在剑鱼座和山案座的方向。
大麦哲伦星系是环绕银河系运行的数十个小型伴星系中最大的一颗。而狼蛛星云不仅是大麦哲伦星系中最大、最明亮的恒星形成区，也是银河系所属的整个邻近星系群中最为耀眼的恒星诞生地。
狼蛛星云孕育着已知最为庞大的恒星，其中一些质量约为太阳的200倍。这张图像的视野中非常接近一种罕见的恒星类型——沃尔夫–拉叶星。此类恒星极为炽热而明亮，已失去了外层的氢壳层，并通过强劲密集的恒星风释放出巨大能量。
凭借多波段观测能力，哈勃成为观测这一星云的常客，它能捕捉到星云尘埃云层中雕塑般的精细结构。本图像的数据来自一个名为斯库拉（源于希腊神话中的多头海怪）的观测计划。该计划旨在补充另一个哈勃观测项目——ULLYSES（年轻恒星紫外遗产库计划）。ULLYSES聚焦于小麦哲伦和大麦哲伦星系中的大质量年轻恒星，而斯库拉则研究这些恒星周围气体与尘埃的结构。
图片来源: ESA/Hubble & NASA, C. Murray
