Tarantula Nebula

30 Doradus ( the Tarantula Nebula or NGC 2070 also ) is the name of the Large Magellanic Cloud in the constellation Swordfish ( Dorado ) located emission nebula. He is one of the largest known star-forming regions in the Local Group and (52 kpc ) to see despite its distance of 179,000 light years, even in small telescopes. It has a diameter of 40 '× 25' (which corresponds to ~ 2000 light years ) and an apparent magnitude of 8.0 mag.

Was discovered 30 Doradus in 1751 by the French astronomer Nicolas Louis de Lacaille, but gave him a star number (30). John Herschel called him because of his visible in the telescope turbulence as Looped Nebula.

The embedded in the center of star clusters R136 contains the up -date ( 2010) the most massive and brightest known star R136a1 (265 M ☉, 107 L ☉ ).

In the northern part of the Tarantula Nebula is the double star cluster Hodge 301 is Some of his giant stars also light up the surrounding fog, but he has 25 million years ago, much older than R136.

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