Observation of the diffuse nebula NGC 261 in the Small Magellanic Cloud by the Hubble Space Telescope

NGC 261 is located within the Small Magellanic Cloud, one of the Milky Way's closest neighbors.

NGC 261 It is a diffuse nebula located about 200,000 light years away in the constellation Tetranychus.

The object, also known as Brook 42, ESO 29-12, and IRAS 00447-7322, Found It was discovered on September 5, 1826 by Scottish astronomer James Dunlop.

“The ionized gas burning up from within this diffuse region characterizes NGC 261 as an emission nebula,” the Hubble astronomers said.

“The stars are so hot that they irradiate the surrounding hydrogen gas, giving the clouds a pinkish-red glow.”

The Hubble Space Telescope has turned its keen eye to NGC 261 to study how efficiently stars form within molecular clouds, extremely dense regions of gas and dust.

“These clouds are often composed of large amounts of molecular hydrogen and are the cold regions where most stars form,” the researchers explained.

“But molecular hydrogen is poorly radiative, making it difficult to measure this fuel for star formation in stellar nurseries.”

“Because they're difficult to detect, scientists instead track other molecules present within the molecular cloud.”

“The Small Magellanic Cloud contains a gas-rich environment of young stars, as well as traces of carbon monoxide, which correlates with hydrogen and is a chemical often used to confirm the presence of such clouds.”

The new composite image is Hubble's Advanced Camera for Surveys (ACS) and Wide-angle camera 3 (WFC3) shows such a star in the southwestern part of the Small Magellanic Cloud, where NGC 261 resides.

“The combined powers of the ACS and WFC3 instruments allowed us to probe the star formation properties of the nebula through its carbon monoxide content at visible and near-infrared wavelengths,” the scientists said.

“This work helps us better understand how stars form in our host galaxy and in our Galactic neighbours.”