The Seahorse of the Large Magellanic Cloud
Explanation:
To some it may look to some like a big space monster, but it is more big than monster.
To others it may look like a grazing
seahorse,
but the dark object toward the image right is actually an inanimate
pillar of smoky
dust about 20
light years long.
The curiously-shaped
dust structure occurs in our neighboring
Large Magellanic Cloud, in a star forming region
very near the expansive
Tarantula Nebula.
The energetic nebula is creating a
star cluster named NGC 2074, whose center is visible
just off the top of the image in the
direction of the neck of the seahorse.
The
above representative color image was taken last year by the
Hubble Space Telescope's
Wide Field Planetary Camera 2 in honor of
Hubble's 100,000th trip around the Earth.
As young stars in the cluster form, their light and
winds will slowly erode the
dust pillars away over the
next million years.
Authors & editors:
Robert Nemiroff
(MTU) &
Jerry Bonnell
(USRA)
NASA Web Site Statements, Warnings,
and Disclaimers
NASA Official: Jay Norris.
Specific
rights apply.
A service of:
LHEA at
NASA /
GSFC
& Michigan Tech. U.
