Hubble time! 🌌 The Universe is a dusty place, as this hubbleesa pic shows. Featured in this image are swirling clouds of gas and dust near the Tarantula Nebula in the Large Magellanic Cloud. About 160 000 light-years away in the constellations Dorado and Mensa, the Large Magellanic Cloud is one of the nearest galaxies to the Milky Way. The Tarantula Nebula is the most productive star-forming region in the nearby Universe, home to the most massive stars known. The colourful gas clouds of this nebula are crossed by wispy tendrils and dark clumps of dust. This dust is different from ordinary household dust, which can be made of bits of soil, skin cells, hair and even plastic. Cosmic dust tends to be made of carbon or of molecules called silicates, which contain silicon and oxygen. The data used to create this image were collected as part of an observing programme that aims to characterise the properties of cosmic dust in the Large Magellanic Cloud and other nearby galaxies. Dust plays...