Below is a zoomable version of the tarantula nebula. You can also view this version here: http://www.gigapan.com/gigapans/230324. If you have a minute or ten, I really hope you spend some time just looking at the various little complications in this image – I assure you that it will be well worth your time!
The full jpg version is available for free use on my flickr, which you can access by clicking the link below:
If you would like to use a higher-quality version, feel free to email me at theastronomyenthusiast@gmail.com
About the image:
The Tarantula Nebula is more than a thousand light-years in diameter, a giant star forming region within nearby satellite galaxy the Large Magellanic Cloud, about 180 thousand light-years away. Within the Tarantula, intense radiation, stellar winds and supernova shocks from the central young cluster of massive stars, cataloged as R136, energize the nebular glow and shape the spidery filaments. Dark dust lanes obscure some of the ionized gas lending spectacular depth to the space.
If you have any science background or love learning, I really recommend reading the papers about the creation and discoveries of this image:
Paper 1: https://ui.adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2013AJ….146…53S/abstract
Paper 2: https://ui.adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2015ApJ…811…76C/abstract
When I process Hubble data, there are images that I revisit again and again and again. This is perhaps my favorite region in all of the archives to work on — the sheer magnitude and beauty of this object never ceases to amaze me. Hubble spent years imaging this region – it took nearly 60 orbits!, with a combined exposure time of five straights days (143.08 hours). The result is a spectacular 140.2 megapixel mosaic spanning 100 parsecs across.
It’s hard to do an image of this magnitude justice, but I did my best to process it properly. With each image nearly 2.8 gigbytes, it took hours to do anything, and reaching this final draft took me nearly two weeks! This image is a false-color composite spanning visable and near-infrared wavelengths, allowing me to display the stunning nebulosity and tendrils of dark dust spanning this image.
Closeups:
Below are some closeups of the image that I think are super cool! You can also see those closeups on the zoomable image above or by clicking on the gigapan link.
Wall of gas
This region remined me of the wall of gas formed by stars in the north American nebula: https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap150312.html
Contrasting regions
The contrast between the ionized filaments on the bottom left, the brown bok globules on the top left, and the smooth gas shelf on the right is awesome!
Dark Dust
The mixing between dark dust and shelves of ionized gas here is mesmerizing
Windy staircase of dust
Here the gas structure is just incredible – so clean and elegant
Wavy shelves of dust and gas
This area of the nebula is super super cool to me – I can’t tell if it is being blown away from the star cluster, or if it is being pulled in.
Pillar
This structure reminds me of a lot of the gas pillars seen in new star forming regions like the eagle nebula.
Interesting intersecting bowshocks
It’s pretty interesting to se these overlapping bowshocks – it just goes to show how busy this region is.
Gas structure
Not much to say here – it’s just fascinating how the dust structure appears
Supernova remanent
These wispy tendrils really remind me of the supernova remnants, especially the ones in vela.
30 dor
The main star cluster. I left the electron bleeds in because I didn’t want to damage any of the surrounding information
Pillar no. 2
This particular structure reminded me of the eagle nebula, especially considering the proximity to the main 30 dor star cluster.
Data details:
This work is based on observations taken by the Hubble Tarantula Treasury Project with the NASA/ESA HST, which is operated by the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy, Inc., under NASA contract NAS5-26555. This project is detailed in the following papers: https://ui.adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2013AJ….146…53S/abstract, https://ui.adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2016ApJS..222…11S/abstract
Red: F775WACS Mosaic
Green: F658N Mosaic
Blue: F555W MosaicProcessing:
All processing was done in pixinsight.
Linear Processing:
- Each mosaic was cropped to remove artifacts
- The tail of each histogram was clipped to 0%
- The mosaics were combined into an RGB image
- The RGB image was color balanced using linear fit methods
- The stars were seperated from the nebulosity using GHS and the ai script starnet 2
- The starless image was denoised using MMT and TGV denoise
Non-linear Processing
- The starless image was stretched using GHS
- excess magenta noise was removed using an inverted SCNR
- some darker regions were brightened using exponential transformation
- HDR multiscale transform to flatten dynamic range
- Saturation was increased using an inverted L*SV mask
- The image was relinieraized and then stretched to preserve dynamic range
- Curves transformation to increase contrast
- Saturation was increased using an inverted L*SV mask
- Sharpening was performend using MMT and MLT with a luminance mask
- The stellar image was stretched
- the stellar image and nebula image were recombined using a relinearazation process.