The Tarantula Nebula sounds like it would be a better fit for Halloween than Valentine's Day. But just look at it. You can see why NASA thinks it's an appropriate astronomical gift for a day of love and flowers. NASA shared a view of the nebula, more formally known as 30 Doradus (or 30 Dor), on Feb. 12, describing it as a "stellar bouquet."
The image combines data from NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory, the Hubble Space Telescope and the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array, a telescope in Chile.
Some views of 30 Dor -- like this one from the James Webb Space Telescope -- highlight the nebula's spidery spindles of dust and gas filaments. The new image looks like a purplish puff of cosmic cotton candy more than an arachnid.
The nebula is located 160,000 light-years away in a neighboring galaxy, the Large Magellanic Cloud.
The nebula is a stellar nursery with a notable cluster of massive stars at its center.
"The massive young stars in 30 Dor send cosmically strong winds out into space," NASA said. "Along with the matter and energy ejected by stars that have previously exploded, these winds have carved out an eye-catching display of arcs, pillars and bubbles."
Some of these stars are just 1 to 2 million years old. Compare that to our sun at 5 billion years old.
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Chandra looked for X-ray emission sources in 30 Doradus. This is Chandra's contribution to the composite image.
X-ray: NASA/CXC/Penn State Univ./L. Townsley et alChandra's contribution to the new image is significant. It represents 23 days of observations seeking out sources of X-rays. It found thousands.
"The 3,615 X-ray sources detected by Chandra include a mixture of massive stars, double-star systems, bright stars that are still in the process of forming, and much smaller clusters of young stars," NASA said.
Look for the blue and green parts of the image to find Chandra's share of the view.
There's a lot of science behind the beauty of 30 Dor. A team of astronomers and astrophysicists used Chandra's X-ray data for a study published in The Astrophysical Journal Supplement Series last year. The paper describes 30 Dor as "a microscope on starburst astrophysics." The long observation time allowed the researchers to track changes in the stars, including the movements of binary stars.
If you like your Valentine's sweetness with a side of science, then this "bouquet of budding young stars" is for you. Here's a potential note for your amor to go along with the image: "Our love is like a massive double-star system in 30 Doradus. We make a stellar pair!"
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