The Large Magellanic Cloud HII region N160A (NGC 2080)






A ``true color'' composite image of the Large Magellanic Cloud HII region N160A (NGC 2080) obtaind with the Hubble Space Telescope.

Credit: M. Heydari-Malayeri (Observatoire de Paris), NASA, ESA

This true color image obtaind using the WFPC2 camera on board HST, was created by combining three images taken with the H-alpha (red), [O III] (green), and H-beta (blue) filters. The two bright emission nebulae are the high excitation HII blobs A1 (bottom), and A2 (top). Note the cavity of a mere 2".3 across (about 0.6 pc) and the surrounding shell carved by a massive star inside A1, as well as the bright neighboring ridge. A2 is resolved into a mottled structure due to high dust content and harbors several faint stars. A prominent ionization front borders a high absorption zone to the west where the extinction approaches values higher than 2.5 mag in the visible. There are also several conspicuous arcs and filaments created by the winds and shocks of the embedded stars as well as a few ``tiny'' dust pillars, along with a blue star cluster towards the middle of N160A. The whole nebula resembles a ``ghost'' or a ``beast head'' with the ``blobs'' as its eyes and the absorption zone as its mouth! The field size is about 63" x 63" (16 pc x 16 pc).




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