Hubble Telescope captures the scene of star creation! It is only 160,000 light-years away from us

The Hubble Space Telescope captured this view of star creation, located near the outskirts of the famous Tarantula Nebula. This nebula of gas and dust, and the many young massive stars surrounding it, is a perfect laboratory to study the birth of massive stars. The bright pink nebula and the young stars surrounding it in this image taken by the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope are named LHA 120-N150. This region of space is located on the outskirts of the Tarantula Nebula, one of the largest stellar nurseries known in the universe.

The nebula is located more than 160,000 light-years away in the Large Magellanic Cloud, an irregular dwarf galaxy orbiting the Milky Way. The Large Magellanic Cloud has had one or more close encounters in the past, possibly with the Small Magellanic Cloud. These interactions have caused an episode of energetic star formation in our tiny neighbor, part of which can be seen as the Tarantula Nebula. Also known as 30 Doradus or NGC 2070, the Tarantula Nebula gets its name from the arrangement of bright patches that somewhat resemble the legs of a tarantula.

At nearly 1,000 light-years in diameter, the Tarantula Nebula feels close at hand, and its favorable inclination to the Large Magellanic Cloud, as well as the absence of intervening dust, makes the Tarantula Nebula one of the best laboratories for studying the formation of stars, especially massive stars. The Tarantula Nebula hosts an unusually high density of massive stars, often referred to as superclusters. Astronomers studied LHA120-N150 to learn more about the environments in which massive stars form. Theoretical models of massive star formation suggest that they should form within star clusters; but observations suggest that up to 10% of massive stars form in isolation.

The giant Tarantula Nebula and its numerous substructures are the perfect laboratory for unraveling this mystery, because within it, massive stars can be found both as members of clusters and as isolated stars. With the help of Hubble, astronomers are trying to figure out whether the isolated stars visible in the nebula truly formed individually, or simply left their stellar siblings. However, such studies are not an easy task, as young stars, especially massive ones, look very similar to dense dust before they are fully formed.

LHA 120-N 150 contains dozens of such objects, a mixture of possible young stellar bodies and others that may be dust clumps. Only detailed analysis and observations will reveal their nature, which will help to finally resolve the unresolved question of the origin of massive stars. Hubble has observed the Tarantula Nebula and its substructures in the past, and astronomers are very interested in the formation and evolution of stars. The findings are published in the Astrophysical Journal. The observations show that a significant fraction of O stars in the Milky Way field of view appear to have formed in isolation or as low-mass clusters (8${M}_{\ODOT}$) of young stars (MYSO). The observations show that although these young stars are far away from other clusters nebulae and even known giant molecular clouds, they are actually not isolated at all.

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Bo Ke Yuan | Research/From: ESA/Hubble Information Center

Reference journal: Astrophysics

DOI: 10.3847/1538-4357/834/1/94

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