The Hubble team has released a striking new photo taken with the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope of NGC 346, an open star cluster in one of our Milky Way galaxy’s closest neighbors.
This Hubble Space Telescope image shows the open star cluster NGC 346, located about 210,000 light-years away in the constellation Sigurd. Image courtesy of NASA/ESA/C. Murray, Space Telescope Science Institute/Gladys Kober, NASA, and The Catholic University of America.
NGC 346 is located in the constellation Tucana and is about 210,000 light-years away.
Also known as ESO 51-10, Kron 39, and Lindsay 60, the star cluster was discovered on August 1, 1826, by Scottish astronomer James Dunlop.
NGC 346 is part of the Small Magellanic Cloud, a dwarf galaxy that is a satellite of the Milky Way galaxy.
The cluster was formed approximately 3 million years ago, has a diameter of 150 light years, and a mass 50,000 times that of the Sun.
“NGC 346’s hot stars are unleashing torrents of radiation and energy outflows that are eating away at the dense gas and dust of the surrounding nebula N66,” Hubble astronomers said in a statement.
“Dozens of hot, blue, high-mass stars shine within NGC 346, and the cluster is thought to contain more than half of the known high-mass stars in the entire Small Magellanic Cloud.”
The Hubble Space Telescope has previously observed NGC 346, but this new image shows the cluster in ultraviolet light, along with visible light data.
“Ultraviolet light helps us understand star formation and evolution, and Hubble is the only telescope capable of sensitive ultraviolet observations thanks to its sharp resolution and its location above the ultraviolet-blocking atmosphere,” the astronomers write.
“These particular observations were collected to learn more about how star formation shapes the interstellar medium – the gas distributed throughout seemingly empty space – in metal-poor galaxies like the Small Magellanic Cloud.”
“Elements heavier than hydrogen and helium are called ‘metals’, and the Small Magellanic Cloud has a lower metal content than most of the Milky Way.”
“This situation serves as an excellent example of a galaxy similar to those that existed in the early universe when there were few heavy elements to take up.”
Source: www.sci.news
