TRAPPIST–South first light image of the Tarantula Nebula
eso_eso1023a June 8th, 2010
Credit: TRAPPIST/E. Jehin/ESO
This first light image of the TRAPPIST–South national telescope at La Silla shows the Tarantula Nebula, located in the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC) — one of the galaxies closest to us. Also known as 30 Doradus or NGC 2070, the nebula owes its name to the arrangement of bright patches that somewhat resembles the legs of a tarantula. Taking the name of one of the biggest spiders on Earth is very fitting in view of the gigantic proportions of this celestial nebula — it measures nearly 1000 light-years across! Its proximity, the favourable inclination of the LMC, and the absence of intervening dust make this nebula one of the best laboratories to help understand the formation of massive stars better. The image was made from data obtained through three filters (B, V and R) and the field of view is about 20 arcminutes across.
Provider: European Southern Observatory
Image Source: https://www.eso.org/public/images/eso1023a/
Curator: European Southern Observatory, Garching bei München, Germany
Image Use Policy: Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License
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Full Size Image
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Source TIFF (10.1 MB)
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Image Details
Position Details
Color Mapping
| Telescope | Spectral Band | Wavelength | |
|---|---|---|---|
|
TRAnsiting Planets and PlanetesImals Small Telescope–South (None) | Optical (R) | 658.0 nm |
|
TRAnsiting Planets and PlanetesImals Small Telescope–South (None) | Optical (V) | 551.0 nm |
|
TRAnsiting Planets and PlanetesImals Small Telescope–South (None) | Optical (B) | 445.0 nm |
- ID
- eso1023a
- Subject Category
- C.4.2.1.1
- Subject Name
- 30 Doradus, NGC 2070, Tarantula Nebula
- Credits
- TRAPPIST/E. Jehin/ESO
- Release Date
- 2010-06-08T12:00:00
- Lightyears
- Redshift
- Reference Url
- https://www.eso.org/public/images/eso1023a/
- Type
- Observation
- Image Quality
- Distance Notes
- Approximate distance in light years from AJ (http://iopscience.iop.org/0067-0049/191/1/160/fulltext)
- Facility
- TRAnsiting Planets and PlanetesImals Small Telescope–South, TRAnsiting Planets and PlanetesImals Small Telescope–South, TRAnsiting Planets and PlanetesImals Small Telescope–South
- Instrument
- None, None, None
- Color Assignment
- Red, Green, Blue
- Band
- Optical, Optical, Optical
- Bandpass
- R, V, B
- Central Wavelength
- 658, 551, 445
- Start Time
- Integration Time
- Dataset ID
- Notes
- Coordinate Frame
- ICRS
- Equinox
- J2000
- Reference Value
- 84.658276, -69.094909
- Reference Dimension
- 2016.0, 2038.0
- Reference Pixel
- 880.044115161, 1008.99393776
- Scale
- -0.00018106851, 0.00018106851
- Rotation
- 2.30371147848
- Coordinate System Projection:
- TAN
- Quality
- Full
- FITS Header
- Notes
- Creator (Curator)
- European Southern Observatory
- URL
- http://www.eso.org/
- Name
- Telephone
- Address
- Karl-Schwarzschild-Strasse 2
- City
- Garching bei München
- State/Province
- Postal Code
- D-85748
- Country
- Germany
- Rights
- Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License
- Publisher
- European Southern Observatory
- Publisher ID
- eso
- Resource ID
- eso1023a
- Resource URL
- https://www.eso.org/public/archives/images/original/eso1023a.tif
- Related Resources
- Metadata Date
- 2010-06-07T14:08:23+02:00
- Metadata Version
- 1.1
Detailed color mapping information coming soon...
