By ESA/Hubble
December 4, 2022
Hubble Space Telescope image reveals a small portion of the Small Magellanic Cloud. Credit: ESA/Hubble & & NASA, A. Nota, G. De Marchi
This image from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope includes a small portion of the Small Magellanic Cloud (SMC). Located only about 200,000 light-years from Earth, the SMC, which is a dwarf galaxy, is one of the Milky Ways closest intergalactic next-door neighbors. It makes a couple with the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC), and both objects can be seen from the southern hemisphere, in addition to from some northern latitudes.
Although the Small Magellanic Cloud includes numerous countless stars, this image concentrates on just a small fraction of them. These stars make up the open cluster NGC 376, which has a total mass of only about 3,400 times that of the Sun. Open clusters, as the name recommends, are loosely bound and sparsely occupied. This distinguishes open clusters from globular clusters, which are typically so thronged with stars that they have a constant blur of starlight at their. When it comes to NGC 376, specific stars can be selected clearly even in the most densely inhabited parts of this image.
The data in this image originated from two various huge investigations which relied on two of Hubbles instruments: the Wide Field Camera 3 (WFC3) and the Advanced Camera for Surveys (ACS). The first investigation utilized the ACS to explore a handful of star clusters in the Small Magellanic Cloud and assistance astronomers explore subjects including the abundance of low- and high-mass stars in different environments. The 2nd examination utilized both the WFC3 and ACS, and aimed to respond to essential questions about the lives of stars and assist astronomers understand exactly where, when, why, and how stars form.
