Annotated Wide Field View of the Tarantula Nebula (Ground Based Image)

This wide-field view of the Tarantula Nebula was taken with the Wide Field Imager (WFI) on the MPG/ESO 2.2-metre telescope at the European Southern Observatory’s site at La Silla, Chile. This view shows the location of the heaviest star ever discovered (RMC 136a1, within the super star cluster RMC 136), the closest supernova to Earth to have been observed since the invention of the telescope (SN 1987a), plus the remnants of another supernova (NGC 2060). The Tarantula Nebula is the brightest nebula of its type in the local Universe.