News Release Archive:

News Release 5 of 26

May 11, 2010 09:00 AM (EDT)

News Release Number: STScI-2010-14

Hubble Catches Heavyweight Runaway Star Speeding from 30 Doradus

Technical facts about this news release:

About the Object

Object Name:	30 Dor #016
Object Description:	Massive Runaway Star in the Large Magellanic Cloud
Position (J2000):	R.A. 05h 37m 08s.88 Dec. -69° 07' 20".36
Constellation:	Dorado
Distance:	170,000 light-years (52,000 parsecs)

About the Hubble Data

Data Description:	The 30 Doradus "runaway" star study is based on Hubble COS data from proposal 11484: G. Hartig (STScI), T. Delker (Ball Aerospace), C. Keyes (STScI), D. Sahnow (Johns Hopkins University), and S. Osterman (University of Colorado, Boulder). The authors of the 30 Doradus "runaway" star science paper are C. Evans (UK Astronomy Technology Center/Royal Observatory Edinburgh), N. Walborn (STScI), P. Crowther (University of Sheffield, UK), V. Hénault-Brunet (University of Edinburgh/Royal Observatory Edinburgh), D. Massa (STScI), W. Taylor (University of Edinburgh/Royal Observatory Edinburgh), I. Howarth (University College London), H. Sana (European Southern Observatory, Santiago, Chile/University of Amsterdam), D. Lennon (STScI), and J. van Loon (Keele University, UK).
Instrument:	COS
Exposure Date(s):	July 20-25, 2009
Exposure Time:	2.8 hours
Filters:	G130M (UV) and G160M (UV)

About the Hubble Release Image

Data Description:	The 30 Doradus "runaway" star image is based on Hubble WFPC2 data from proposal 5584: J. Walsh (ESO/ST-ECF), et al. This image was combined with a ground-based ESO 2.2-m WFI image of the Tarantula Nebula by J. Alves (Calar Alto, Spain), and B. Vandame and Y. Beletski (ESO). Filters in the ESO image include: B, V, H-alpha and [O III].
Instrument:	WFPC2
Exposure Date(s):	June 30, 1995
Exposure Time:	30 minutes
Filters:	F656N (H-alpha)

About the Release

Image Credit:

NASA, ESA, C. Evans (Royal Observatory Edinburgh), N. Walborn (STScI), and ESO

Release Date:

May 11, 2010

Color:

This image is a composite of two separate exposures made by the WFPC2 instrument on the Hubble Space Telescope along with ground-based observations. In total, two filters were used to sample narrow wavelength emission and two filters were used to sample broadband emission. The color results from assigning different hues (colors) to each monochromatic image. In this case, the assigned colors are:

ESO: B	blue
ESO: [O III] + V	green
ESO: H-alpha	red
HST/WFPC2: F656N (H-alpha)	luminosity*

*The higher resolution, black-and-white Hubble image and the lower resolution, color ESO images were combined using a technique that takes luminosity (brightness) information from the black-and-white ACS image and color information from the composite ESO image. This preserves all of the higher resolution detail from the Hubble data while rendering a color image representing the physical processes in this active region of space.

Orientation/Scale: