The Tarantula Nebula is approximately 160,000 light years away from Earth, but it is very bright. If the Tarantula Nebula were as close to Earth as the Orion Nebula is (approximately 1,340 light years) then it would cast shadows on Earth at night.
This zoom sequence starts with a broad panorama of one of our neighboring galaxies, the Large Magellanic Cloud, and we gradually close in on the Tarantula Nebula, a very active star-forming region. First we see a detailed visible light image obtained with Wide Field Imager on the MPG/ESO 2.2-meter telescope at ESO’s La Silla Observatory in Chile and the sequence ends with a new near-infrared VISTA image of the region around the Tarantula Nebula that was obtained as part of the VISTA Magellanic Cloud Survey.
credit: ESO/M.-R. Cioni/VISTA Magellanic Cloud Survey and Eckhard Slawik ([email protected]). Music: John Dyson (from the album “Moonwind”). Acknowledgment: Cambridge Astronomical Survey Unit.
