Zooming-in on the Tarantula Nebula with radio wavelengths

This zoom video starts with a wide view of the Milky Way and ends with a close-up look at a rich region of star formation in the nearby Large Magellanic Cloud, in the southern constellation of Dorado (The Dolphinfish). The specific region shown, 30 Doradus, is also known as the Tarantula Nebula.

The final view of these clouds was captured by ESO’s Very Large Telescope and the Visible and Infrared Survey Telescope for Astronomy (VISTA), and overlaid with new radio data taken by the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA). The ALMA data reveal bright yellow-red streaks of cold, dense gas that have the potential to collapse and form new stars.