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On the eve of Valentine's Day, NASA astronomers presented a unique image of the nebula Doradus, resembling a blooming bouquet of stars, created by overlaying data from multiple telescopes.
Nebula Doradusabo Tarantula, located in Large Magellanic Cloud, 160 light-years from Earth, is one of the most active star-forming regions in the nearby universe. It contains vast reserves of interstellar gas, which serves as the “fuel” for the birth of new stars, which have been forming there for over 000 million years. "This is the most fertile stellar nursery in the local group of galaxies", — NASA scientists note. Observations have shown that in this region of space, massive stars, born only a few million years ago, emit powerful stellar winds that form arcs, pillars and bubbles of gas.
Data from different spectral ranges were used to create this image: X-rays from the observatory Chandra (marked in blue and green), optical images з Hubble (yellow), and radio wave signals obtained with a grating telescope Atacama in Chile (orange). Of particular interest is 30 Doradus B – a supernova remnant located in the central part of the nebula, surrounded by gas clouds that glow under the influence of high-energy radiation.
Because of 23-day continuous series of observations by the Chandra telescope was discovered 3615 X-ray sources, which include binary star systems, young massive stars, and hot gas produced by supernova explosions. At the center of the nebula are the youngest and most massive stars known to astronomers, which are no more than two million years old. "Our Sun is a thousand times older than these stars", — the researchers emphasize. Nebula Doradus remains a unique laboratory for studying the processes of star birth, helping scientists unravel the mysteries of galactic evolution.
