Документ взят из кэша поисковой машины. Адрес оригинального документа : http://www.arcetri.astro.it/~palla/ANDREAIMMAGINI/ISM/Tarantula.txt Дата изменения: Tue Jan 30 14:12:35 2001 Дата индексирования: Sat Dec 22 08:18:07 2007 Кодировка: Поисковые слова: supernova

EMBARGOED UNTIL: 12 NOON (EST) April 1, 1999

PHOTO NO.: STScI-PRC99-12


MULTIPLE GENERATIONS OF STARS IN THE TARANTULA NEBULA

In the most active starburst region in the local universe lies a
cluster of brilliant, massive stars, known to astronomers as
Hodge 301.

Hodge 301, seen in the lower right hand corner of this image,
lives inside the Tarantula Nebula in our galactic neighbor, the
Large Magellanic Cloud.

This star cluster is not the brightest, or youngest, or most
populous star cluster in the Tarantula Nebula -- that honor goes
to the spectacular R136. In fact, Hodge 301 is almost 10 times
older than the young cluster R136.

But age has its advantages; many of the stars in Hodge 301 are so
old that they have exploded as supernovae. These exploded stars
are blasting material out into the surrounding region at speeds of
almost 200 miles per second. This high speed ejecta are plowing
into the surrounding Tarantula Nebula, shocking and compressing
the gas into a multitude of sheets and filaments, seen in the
upper left portion of the picture.

Note for your calendar; Hodge 301 contains three red supergiants -
stars that are close to the end of their evolution and are about
to go supernova, exploding and sending more shocks into the
Tarantula.

Also present near the center of the image are small, dense gas
globules and dust columns where new stars are being formed today,
as part of the overall ongoing star formation throughout the
Tarantula region.

Credit: Hubble Heritage Team (AURA/STScI/NASA)

* * *

ATTENTION! The Hubble Heritage Project will launch another voting
session on May 6th (which will end on June 4th). The public will be
invited to vote for their favorite out of 3 groups of interacting
galaxies (called Hickson Compact Groups). The winning group will be
observed with the Hubble Space Telescope in the summer of 1999.

* * *

NOTE TO EDITORS: Image files and photo caption are available on the
Internet at:
http://heritage.stsci.edu/
http://oposite.stsci.edu/pubinfo/pr/1999/12 or via links in
http://oposite.stsci.edu/pubinfo/latest.html and
http://oposite.stsci.edu/pubinfo/pictures.html

Higher resolution digital versions of (300 dpi JPEG and TIFF) of the
release photo are available at:
http://oposite.stsci.edu/pubinfo/pr/1999/12/extra-photos.html

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