But it’s the large and small Magellanic clouds, our own satellite galaxies, that never fail to bring a smile to my face. They may appear as faint smudges to the naked eye, but through the lens of a telescope, they transform into breathtaking cosmic landscapes, filled with the beauty of dust, gas and millions of stars.
A few weeks back, I was fortunate enough to be granted some time on a telescope at the University of Canterbury’s Observatory, perched atop Mount John in Mackenzie Country. Despite the late November night and the brevity it promised, I was determined to capture a glimpse of what many astronomers consider the most stunning part of the large Magellanic cloud — the Tarantula Nebula, a name that does little justice to its awe-inspiring beauty.
The Tarantula Nebula is more than 170,000 light-years from Earth. It has been said that if it were as close to us as the great nebula in Orion, one of our galaxy’s most intense star formation regions, the Tarantula would be visible in broad daylight!
This week’s accompanying picture shows the central portion of the Tarantula Nebula. While scientists could write millions of words describing this complex region’s chemistry, physics and dynamics, for me, the joy of this part of the sky needs no words to describe its beauty. A simple picture will suffice.
