Credit: ESO

Above and to the right of the central cluster in the Tarantula Nebula, another cluster of bright, massive stars is seen. Known to astronomers as Hodge 301, it is about 20 million years old, or about 10 times older than R136. The more massive stars of Hodge 301 have therefore already exploded as supernovae, blasting material away at tremendous speed and creating a web of entangled filaments. More explosions will come soon — in astronomical terms — as three red supergiants are indeed present in Hodge 301 that will end their life in the gigantic firework of a supernova within the next million years.

Provider: European Southern Observatory

Image Source: https://www.eso.org/public/images/eso0613c/

Curator: European Southern Observatory, Garching bei München, Germany

Image Use Policy: Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License