N 180B in the Large Magellanic Cloud

Esahubble_opo0641a_1024

esahubble_opo0641a August 23rd, 2006

Credit: NASA, ESA, and the Hubble Heritage Team (STScI/AURA)

This active region of star formation in the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC), as photographed by NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope, unveils wispy clouds of hydrogen and oxygen that swirl and mix with dust on a canvas of astronomical size. The LMC is a satellite galaxy of the Milky Way. This particular region within the LMC, referred to as N 180B, contains some of the brightest known star clusters. The hottest blue stars can be brighter than a million of our Suns. Their intense energy output generates not only harsh ultraviolet radiation but also incredibly strong stellar "winds" of high-speed, charged particles that blow into space. The ultraviolet radiation ionizes the interstellar gas and makes it glow, while the winds can disperse the interstellar gas across tens or hundreds of light-years. Both actions are evident in N 180B. Also visible etched against the glowing hydrogen and oxygen gases are 100 light-year-long dust streamers that run the length of the nebula, intersecting the core of the cluster near the centre of the image. Perpendicular to the direction of the dark streamers, bright orange rims of compact dust clouds appear near the bottom right of and top left corners of the image. These dark concentrations are on the order of a few light-years in size. Also visible among the dust clouds are so-called "elephant trunk" stalks of dust. If the pressure from the nearby stellar winds is great enough to compress this material and cause it to gravitationally contract, star formation might be triggered in these small dust clouds. These dust clouds are evidence that this is still a young star-formation region. This image was taken with Hubble's Wide Field Planetary Camera 2 in 1998 using filters that isolate light emitted by hydrogen and oxygen gas. To create a colour composite, the data from the hydrogen filter were colorized red, the oxygen filter were colorized blue, and a combination of the two filters averaged together was colorized green. The amalgamation yields pink and orange hydrogen clouds set amid a field of soft blue oxygen gas. Dense dust clouds block starlight and glowing gas from our view point.

Provider: Hubble Space Telescope | ESA

Image Source: https://www.spacetelescope.org/images/opo0641a/

Curator: ESA/Hubble, Garching bei München, Germany

Image Use Policy: Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License

Image Details

Image Type
Observation
Object Name
LH 117 N 180B NGC 2122
Subject - Milky Way
Nebula > Type > Star Formation
Esahubble_opo0641a_128
 

Position Details

Position (ICRS)
RA = 5h 48m 49.5s
DEC = -70° 4’ 30.0”
Orientation
North is 175.7° CW
Field of View
2.5 x 2.5 arcminutes
Constellation
Mensa

Color Mapping

  Telescope Spectral Band Wavelength
Red Hubble (WFPC2) Optical (H-alpha) -
Green Hubble (WFPC2) Optical (Pseudogreen) -
Blue Hubble (WFPC2) Optical (OIII) -
Esahubble_opo0641a_1280
×
ID
opo0641a
Subject Category
B.4.1.2  
Subject Name
LH 117, N 180B, NGC 2122
Credits
NASA, ESA, and the Hubble Heritage Team (STScI/AURA)
Release Date
2006-08-23T15:00:00
Lightyears
Redshift
Reference Url
https://www.spacetelescope.org/images/opo0641a/
Type
Observation
Image Quality
Distance Notes
Facility
Hubble Space Telescope, Hubble Space Telescope, Hubble Space Telescope
Instrument
WFPC2, WFPC2, WFPC2
Color Assignment
Red, Green, Blue
Band
Optical, Optical, Optical
Bandpass
H-alpha, Pseudogreen, OIII
Central Wavelength
Start Time
Integration Time
Dataset ID
Notes
Coordinate Frame
ICRS
Equinox
J2000
Reference Value
87.2060969913, -70.075004352
Reference Dimension
1496.0, 1480.0
Reference Pixel
748.0, 740.0
Scale
-2.76474144552e-05, 2.76474144552e-05
Rotation
-175.73999999999992
Coordinate System Projection:
TAN
Quality
Full
FITS Header
Notes
Creator (Curator)
ESA/Hubble
URL
http://www.spacetelescope.org/
Name
Email
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
ESA/Hubble
Publisher ID
esahubble
Resource ID
opo0641a
Metadata Date
2006-08-16T16:41:56-04:00
Metadata Version
1.1
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Detailed color mapping information coming soon...

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There is no distance meta data in this image.

 

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