Comments on: Closeup up of a 7-quadrillion-kilometer-wide spider

By: Messier Tidy Upper

Messier Tidy Upper — Wed, 08 Aug 2012 15:41:13 +0000

@3. Brian asked :

I have a question though, So when I saw the LMC at night (and in photos like this: (link snipped – ed.) I noticed that you can see a brighter patch that sticks off to the side of the ‘bar’ shape. I was wondering if that was anything significant. Is this the Tarantula Nebula? Because that’s pretty damn big! If not, where in the LMC is the Tarantula Nebula?

As I understand it, the Tarantula nebula is part of that big patch at the left-hand side off the LMC’s bar I think you were meaning.

I’ve linked a youtube clip to my name for you which zooms in on the Tarantula nebula and shows its intergalactic context and location – Hubble Zoom Into The Tarantula Nebula HD 1080p posted by violine777.

By: Jim

Jim — Wed, 08 Aug 2012 10:02:03 +0000

Why is it that I love Diffraction Spikes so?

By: Infinite123Lifer

Infinite123Lifer — Wed, 08 Aug 2012 08:08:44 +0000

The Local Group. What an interesting bunch to say the least.

“The Tarantula nebula is huge beyond comprehension: it’s 650 light years cross, or nearly 7 quadrillion kilometers (4 quadrillion miles) in size.”

Thank you for the conversion from metric to US (as always . . . sadly, what? yeah, I was raised on US and thus have a better comprehension for distance using US than the globally accepted and agreed upon metric system. . . its maddening*) because I was having a really hard time visualizing 7 quadrillion kilometers, but 4 quadrillion miles! now theres a number I can . . . oh wait, its huge “beyond comprehension” . . . nevermind.

JIC: The Tarantula Nebula has an estimated diameter of 200 parsecs (from wikipedia) if light years or kilometers or miles fail your fancy.

Ok, I think I just used parsec in a sentence . . . yup, scratch that one off my mini bucket list

* probably little to no chance in saving the next generation from such a confuscating fate either

By: VinceRN

VinceRN — Tue, 07 Aug 2012 20:13:34 +0000

Wow.

By: Jess Tauber

Jess Tauber — Tue, 07 Aug 2012 19:04:54 +0000

Curious how the materials in the grains find each other. I’ve been wondering whether magnetic fields might enhance, even guide the process.

By: Brian

Brian — Tue, 07 Aug 2012 16:31:05 +0000

I was just down in New Zealand, and I LOVED stargazing down there. The south island has incredibly dark skies, so the LMC and SMC were impossible to miss! Sadly I did not have a telescope to view anything with.

I have a question though, So when I saw the LMC at night (and in photos like this: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Large.mc.arp.750pix.jpg) I noticed that you can see a brighter patch that sticks off to the side of the ‘bar’ shape. I was wondering if that was anything significant.
Is this the Tarantula Nebula? Because that’s pretty damn big!
If not, where in the LMC is the Tarantula Nebula?

Also: MARS!

By: dessy

dessy — Tue, 07 Aug 2012 15:05:28 +0000

Love the Tarantula nebula. I’ll never forget the night I walked outside and saw something ‘funny’ in it. When I went back in and saw the late news I heard about 1987A and realised that’s what I’d been looking at! Many nights were spent with my 4inch refractor out looking at it over the next few weeks.

By: Nick

Nick — Tue, 07 Aug 2012 14:00:46 +0000

Love the picture, but I’ve been kind of disappointed in the coverage that the Tarantual nebula gets, overall. I was trying to find some decent picture collections or even a book covering it’s structure, etc, and it’s barely mentioned. Worse is in a lot of the astronomy apps you can get, including Wonders of the Universe on iPad, doesn’t even bother with it.

I’d love to see it get a lot more popular coverage, but seems like anything that’s not visible in the northern hemisphere gets the short stick…