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NGC 2070 Tarantula Nebula 4-Panel Mosaic in Narrowband SHO

Behold the Tarantula Nebula (NGC 2070, or 30 Doradus), the undisputed champion of star formation in our local galactic neighborhood! Residing 170,000 light-years away within the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC), this sprawling ionized hydrogen region is a violent, magnificent stellar factory. This image captures the nebula's intricate, glowing filaments of gas and dark silhouetted dust lanes, which give the cloud its evocative, spidery appearance. If the Tarantula were as close as the Orion Nebula, it would easily cover 60 full moons in the night sky and would be so bright it could cast shadows on Earth.