• iconNews
  • videos
  • entertainment
  • Home
  • News
    • UK News
    • US News
    • Australia
    • Ireland
    • World News
    • Weird News
    • Viral News
    • Sport
    • Technology
    • Science
    • True Crime
    • Travel
  • Entertainment
    • Celebrity
    • TV & Film
    • Netflix
    • Music
    • Gaming
    • TikTok
  • LAD Originals
    • Say Maaate to a Mate
    • Daily Ladness
    • Lad Files
    • UOKM8?
    • FreeToBe
    • Extinct
    • Citizen Reef
  • Advertise
  • Terms
  • Privacy & Cookies
  • LADbible Group
  • UNILAD
  • SPORTbible
  • GAMINGbible
  • Tyla
  • UNILAD Tech
  • FOODbible
  • License Our Content
  • About Us & Contact
  • Jobs
  • Latest
  • Topics A-Z
  • Authors
Facebook
Instagram
X
Threads
Snapchat
TikTok
YouTube

LAD Entertainment

YouTube

LAD Stories

Submit Your Content
Humungous space tarantula caught by NASA on James Webb telescope

Home> News

Published 06:02 8 Sep 2022 GMT+1

Humungous space tarantula caught by NASA on James Webb telescope

The monstrosity has been caught on camera... and it isn't that far from our own galaxy.

Rachel Lang

Rachel Lang

Humans have been stargazing since the dawn of time and, thanks to neat NASA equipment we are now able to peer even further into the galaxy to catch a glimpse of an enormous tarantula not too far from out own galaxy.

It lurks a mere 161,000 light-years away from Earth. But unlike its namesake on Earth, this tarantula couldn't be less creepy crawly.

We can see that even better now thanks to a few brand-spanking new images captured by the James Webb Space Telescope. Yay!

Advert

NASA's latest image of the Tarantula Nebula.
NASA

The mosaic image - so, lots of little pictures combined to make one big one - has revealed the beauty of the Tarantula Nebula, in all of its stunning glory.

"Nicknamed the Tarantula Nebula for the appearance of its dusty filaments in previous telescope images, the nebula has long been a favourite for astronomers studying star formation," NASA said.

"The region resembles a burrowing tarantula's home, lined with silk."

The nebula, also known as 30 Doradus, is home to the some of the largest and hottest stars in the known universe.

Advert

The NASA telescope uses Near-Infrared Camera (NIRCam) in order to capture the Tarantula Nebula star-forming region in a new light.

The image taken by the Webb telescope, which is far stronger than the Hubble Space Telescope, has so much detail that astro-boffins are now able to catch a glimpse of tens of thousands of never-before-seen young stars.

A previous image of the Tarantula Nebula.
NASA

These once-invisible stars were were previously shrouded in cosmic dust, but now we can see the humungous gas balls are actually glittering a pale blue.

While imagery of the Tarantula Nebula has been captured by the Hubble Space Telescope, new instruments on the James Webb allow us to peer beyond what the Hubble can't see.

Advert

A NASA spokesperson explained why these new, fan-dangled pictures of space are just so cool.

"One of the reasons the Tarantula Nebula is interesting to astronomers is that the nebula has a similar type of chemical composition as the gigantic star-forming regions observed at the universe’s 'cosmic noon' (a galactic growth spurt) when the cosmos was only a few billion years old and star formation was at its peak," NASA said.

Note the blue baby stars which are burning at the hottest temperatures.
NASA

"Star-forming regions in our Milky Way galaxy are not producing stars at the same furious rate as the Tarantula Nebula, and have a different chemical composition."

NASA added: "This makes the Tarantula the [best visual] example of what was happening in the universe as it reached its brilliant high noon."

Advert

Pretty neat, huh? Let's just hope it doesn't actually contain any real space tarantulas.

Because in that case, we're out.

Featured Image Credit: Dotted zebra/Alamy. Karin Pezo/Alamy. NASA.

Topics: US News, NASA, Space

Rachel Lang
Rachel Lang

Rachel Lang is a Digital Journalist at LADbible. During her career, she has interviewed Aussie PM Malcolm Turnbull in the lead up to the 2016 federal election, ran an editorial campaign on the war in Yemen, and reported on homelessness in the lead-up to Harry and Meghan’s wedding in Windsor. She also once wrote a yarn on the cheese and wine version of Fyre Festival.

X

@rlangjournalist

Advert

Advert

Advert

Choose your content:

14 hours ago
15 hours ago
  • 14 hours ago

    World's 'first flying car' is going on sale much sooner than you think

    Flying cars are still something for the future, but apparently the rapidly approaching future

    News
  • 15 hours ago

    Experts issued warning over certain tattoo colour that could increase risk of deadly disease

    There can be some long-term health risks to going under the tattoo needle

    News
  • 15 hours ago

    Man who didn't sleep for a record 264 hours suffered from horrendous and potentially deadly side effects

    He smashed the record but suffered dangerous side effects in the process

    News
  • 15 hours ago

    The targets Iran could strike as it issues chilling threat to UK amid ongoing conflict

    The world isn't feeling particularly safe right now

    News
  • James Webb Space Telescope finds icy disks on edge of alien system of planets
  • James Webb Telescope discovers mysterious free-floating planet drifting through space
  • James Webb Space Telescope discovers ‘best ever signs of life’ on alien planet with '99.7%’ certainty
  • James Webb Space Telescope gives first clear look at dying star over 1,000 light years away