Tarantula Nebula
What is Tarantula Nebula?
Nebulae· Distance 160,000 ly. A monster nebula in the neighboring Large Magellanic Cloud, not our galaxy. Placed where the Orion Nebula is, it would cover 30° of sky and cast shadows. Switch the Sky view to a southern city to see it as the bright knot of the LMC.
📍 Visible from where you are right now — computed in your browser
bearing · altitude · rise time · best time tonight
Where Tarantula Nebula is in your sky right now: https://nowsky.org/solar/sky?sel=tarantula nebula — location and time set automatically, no login.
Its place in the sky
A nebula, in the direction of Mensa, spanning about 40 arcminutes of sky — 1.3 times the width of the full Moon.
Distance and scale
| Distance | ~160,000 ly |
|---|---|
| Size | ~1,000 ly across |
| Type | emission nebula (in the LMC) |
| Constellation | Dorado |
Figures are representative approximations. Source: compiled from NASA and IAU public data.
Discovery and name
SN 1987A exploded on its edge. If it sat where the Orion Nebula is, it would cast shadows.
Frequently asked
- How far is Tarantula Nebula from Earth?
- ~160,000 ly.
- What kind of object is Tarantula Nebula?
- emission nebula (in the LMC).
- Where in the sky is Tarantula Nebula?
- In the direction of Mensa.
- Where is Tarantula Nebula in the sky right now?
- Open the sky view for your location and time and it shows the position in the sky right now.
SN 1987A, the supernova beside the Tarantula
On 23 February 1987 supernova 1987A exploded on the outskirts of the Tarantula Nebula. It was the first naked-eye supernova since Kepler's of 1604, brightening to 3rd magnitude in the southern sky and appearing for months as a new star beside the Large Magellanic Cloud. Hours before the light arrived, 25 neutrinos registered in three detectors on Earth — the first confirmation that the collapse of a star's core announces itself first in neutrinos, as theory said.
The star that exploded was a blue supergiant, contrary to the belief that supernovae come from red supergiants, and the theory was revised. Over the following forty years Hubble tracked the debris brightening as it struck the rings the star had shed in life, and in 2022 Webb found a hot spot at the centre of the remnant that looks like the trace of a neutron star. At 160,000 light-years it never counted as a "nearby" supernova, yet it remains the only one watched with modern instruments from beginning to end.
The nebula in depth
The Tarantula Nebula (30 Doradus) is a giant emission nebula about 1,000 light-years across inside the Large Magellanic Cloud. It is the largest and most active star-forming region in the whole Local Group, bright enough to be seen with the naked eye from 160,000 light-years away. Filaments spreading in every direction earned it the spider's name.
The central cluster R136 holds the most massive stars known. R136a1 weighs close to 200 Suns, and the winds and ultraviolet light of hundreds of such stars carve the nebula. In 1987 Supernova 1987A exploded on its outskirts, the first naked-eye supernova in four centuries, and its remnant is still being watched today.
In the Sky view, set a southern city as your location and find the Large Magellanic Cloud in the southern sky; the brightest knot on its eastern edge is this nebula. It rides high on southern summer evenings (November to February). Binoculars show its shape, and lining it up against the Orion Nebula on the size ladder makes the difference in scale obvious.
Related
Figures are representative approximations. Simulated positions use J2000 mean elements.