PIA14415: A New View of the Tarantula Nebula
This composite of 30 Doradus, the Tarantula Nebula, contains data from Chandra (blue), Hubble (green), and Spitzer (red). Located in the Large Magellanic Cloud, the Tarantula Nebula is one of the largest star-forming regions close to the Milky Way.
 Mission:  Chandra X-ray Observatory 
Hubble Space Telescope 
Spitzer Space Telescope 
 Product Size:  3600 x 2880 pixels (w x h) 
 Produced By:  NASA 
 Full-Res TIFF:  PIA14415.tif (31.1 MB)
 Full-Res JPEG:  PIA14415.jpg (1.774 MB)  

Click on the image above to download a moderately sized image in JPEG format (possibly reduced in size from original)

Original Caption Released with Image:

This composite of 30 Doradus, aka the Tarantula Nebula, contains data from Chandra (blue), Hubble (green), and Spitzer (red). Located in the Large Magellanic Cloud, the Tarantula Nebula is one of the largest star-forming regions close to the Milky Way. Chandra's X-rays detect gas that has been heated to millions of degrees by stellar winds and supernovas. This high-energy stellar activity creates shock fronts, which are similar to sonic booms. Hubble reveals the light from massive stars at various stages of star birth, while Spitzer shows where the relatively cooler gas and dust lie.

Image Credit:
X-ray: NASA/CXC/PSU/L.Townsley et al.; Optical: NASA/STScI; Infrared: NASA/JPL/PSU/L.Townsley et al.

Image Addition Date:
2012-04-17