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APOD
Astronomy Picture of the Day
Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation written by a professional astronomer.
In the Center of 30 Doradus
Explanation: In the center of 30 Doradus lies a huge cluster of the largest, hottest, most massive stars known. The center of this cluster, known as R136 , is boxed in the upper right portion of the above picture. The gas and dust filling the rest of the picture is predominantly ionized hydrogen from the emission nebula 30 Doradus . R136 is composed of thousands of hot blue stars, some about 50 times more massive than our Sun . 30 Doradus and R136 lie in the LMC - a satellite galaxy to our own Milky Way Galaxy . Although the ages of stars in R136 cause it to be best described as an open cluster , R136's density will likely make it a low mass globular cluster in a few billion years.
| Date | May 24, 1996 |
|---|---|
| Credit | Credit: WFPC 2, Hubble Space Telescope |
| Authors & editors: | Robert Nemiroff (MTU) & Jerry Bonnell (UMCP) |
| A service of: |
ASD at NASA / GSFC, NASA Science Activation & Michigan Tech. U. |