Space Swoon: Tarantula Nebula is hyperactive spider in our galactic hood

Hey kids! Do you want to learn about the Tarantula Nebula? Why, it’s enormous as fuck, active as fuck, and generally has been known to swagger through the cosmos with a bravado described as “The Rock meets Gandhi meets the Grim Reaper.” Hey, don’t ask me. I didn’t come up with it.

It is the largest and most complex star forming region in the entire galactic neighborhood. Located in the Large Magellanic Cloud, a small satellite galaxy orbiting our Milky Way galaxy, the region‘s spidery appearance is responsible for its popular name, the Tarantula nebula. This tarantula, however, is about 1,000 light-years across. Were it placed at the distance of Milky Way’s Orion Nebula, only 1,500 light-years distant and the nearest stellar nursery to Earth, it would appear to cover about 30 degrees (60 full moons) on the sky. Intriguing details of the nebula are visible in the above image shown in near true colors. The spindly arms of theTarantula nebula surround NGC 2070, a star cluster that contains some of the brightest, most massive stars known, visible in blue in the image center. Since massive stars live fast and die young, it is not so surprising that thecosmic Tarantula also lies near the site of a close recent supernova.

[NASA]