"The Spider's Web"
Short Listed in the Astronomy Photographer of the Year competition 2011 (Greenwich Observatory)

The 30 Doradus region lies within the Large Magellenic Cloud (LMC) about 170,000 light years from Earth. It is the nearest HII emission nebula complex outside our galaxy. It's also very large, being about 3000 light years across!

At the core of the bright, spider shaped nebula there is a very luminous cluster of stars called NGC 2070. At the core of that cluster lies R136, an extraordinary cluster of very massive O and B type stars that supplies half the luminosity to 30 Doradus (comprising the Tarantula nebula and the cluster NGC 2070). Some of the stars in R136 are thought to be as massive as 130 solar masses!!

At the right edge of the frame you can see the stars of the Large Magellanic Cloud.