This is a Hubble Space Telescope image of a pair of star clusters that are believed to be in the early stages of merging. The clusters lie in the gigantic 30 Doradus Nebula, which is 170,000 light-years from Earth.
Hubble's circumstantial evidence for the impending collision comes from seeing an elongated structure in the cluster at upper left, and from measuring a different age between the two clusters. Also, the unusually large number of high-velocity stars around 30 Doradus can finally be explained if a small cluster has merged into the big cluster R136 in the center of the Tarantula Nebula.
This nearby example of cluster interaction yields insights into how star clusters may have formed in the early universe.
The Hubble observations, made with the Wide Field Camera 3, were taken Oct. 20-27, 2009. The blue color is light from the hottest, most massive stars; the green from the glow of oxygen; and the red from fluorescing hydrogen.
Credits
Image: NASA, ESA, and E. Sabbi (ESA/STScI);Acknowledgment: R. O'Connell (University of Virginia) and the Wide Field Camera 3 Science Oversight Committee
| About The Object | |
|---|---|
| Object Name | 30 Doradus, 30 Dor, Tarantula Nebula |
| Object Description | Nebula in the Large Magellanic Cloud |
| R.A. Position | 05h 38m 42.36s |
| Dec. Position | -69° 6' 3.24" |
| Constellation | Dorado |
| Distance | 170,000 light-years (52,000 parsecs) |
| About The Data | |
| Data Description | The image was created from Hubble data from proposal : R. O'Connell (University of Virginia), B. Balick (University of Washington), H. Bond (STScI), D. Calzetti (University of Massachusetts), M. Carollo (Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, Zurich), M. Disney (University of Wales, College of Cardiff), M. Dopita (Australian National University), J. Frogel (Ohio State University Research Foundation), D. Hall (University of Hawaii), J. Holtzman (New Mexico State University), P. McCarthy (Carnegie Institution of Washington), F. Paresce (European Southern Observatory, Germany), A. Saha (NOAO/AURA), J. Silk (University of Oxford), A. Walker (NOAO/CTIO), B. Whitmore (STScI), R. Windhorst (Arizona State University), and E. Young (University of Arizona). The members of the science team are: E. Sabbi and D.J. Lennon (ESA/STScI), M. Gieles (University of Cambridge, UK), S.E. de Mink (STScI/JHU), N.R. Walborn, J. Anderson, A. Bellini, N. Panagia, and R. van der Marel (STScI), and J. Maíz Apellániz (Instituto de Astrofísica de Andalucía, CISC, Spain). |
| Instrument | HST>WFC3/UVIS and HST>WFC/IR |
| Exposure Dates | October 20 - 27, 2009 (WFC3/UVIS), and October 20 - 27, 2009 (WFC/IR), Exposure Times: 11.7 hours, and 2.6 hours |
| Filters | F336W (U), F438W (B), F555W (V), F656N (H-alpha), and F814W (I) |
| About The Image | |
| Color Info | The images are composites of separate exposures made by the WFC3 instrument on the Hubble Space Telescope. Five filters were used to sample broad and narrow wavelength ranges for the UVIS image. The colors result from assigning different hues (colors) to each monochromatic image. In this case, the assigned colors are: WFC3/UVIS image of 30 Dor Blue: F336W (U) + F438W (B) Green: F555W (V) Red: F814W (I) Orange/red: F656N (H-alpha) |
| Compass Image |  |
| About The Object | |
|---|---|
| Object Name | A name or catalog number that astronomers use to identify an astronomical object. |
| Object Description | The type of astronomical object. |
| R.A. Position | Right ascension – analogous to longitude – is one component of an object's position. |
| Dec. Position | Declination – analogous to latitude – is one component of an object's position. |
| Constellation | One of 88 recognized regions of the celestial sphere in which the object appears. |
| Distance | The physical distance from Earth to the astronomical object. Distances within our solar system are usually measured in Astronomical Units (AU). Distances between stars are usually measured in light-years. Interstellar distances can also be measured in parsecs. |
| Dimensions | The physical size of the object or the apparent angle it subtends on the sky. |
| About The Data | |
| Data Description |
|
| Instrument | The science instrument used to produce the data. |
| Exposure Dates | The date(s) that the telescope made its observations and the total exposure time. |
| Filters | The camera filters that were used in the science observations. |
| About The Image | |
| Image Credit | The primary individuals and institutions responsible for the content. |
| Publication Date | The date and time the release content became public. |
| Color Info | A brief description of the methods used to convert telescope data into the color image being presented. |
| Orientation | The rotation of the image on the sky with respect to the north pole of the celestial sphere. |
