The Tarantula Nebula— or the 30 Doradus— is a stellar nursery situated in the Large Magellanic Cloud galaxy 1,61,000 light years away. Stretching across 340 light years, the nebula is the largest and the brightest star-forming region in the Local group that includes our galaxy, the Milky Way.
Named for its filaments of dust that looked like spider silk in previous images, the Tarantula Nebula was viewed by the Webb telescope through different instruments to glean a clearer picture of the heart of the nebula.
“The images of the Tarantula Nebula were among the first full colour images taken by Webb. We were ecstatic to see how well the observatory was working, and immediately understood that it will help us much better understand how stars are formed across the Universe,” said Klaus Pontoppidan, Webb Project Scientist at the Space Telescope Science Institute.
