A new snapshot of a busy star cluster from the Hubble Space Telescope proves the legendary observatory’s still got it, even in the golden age of the James Webb Space Telescope.
The image shows the most detailed view of NGC 346 yet, a stellar nursery within the Small Magellanic Cloud, a dwarf galaxy that orbits the Milky Way some 210,000 light-years away in the constellation Tucana. Though the cluster has been observed in the past, this is the first time data from all three light wavelengths — infrared, visible, and ultraviolet — have been combined in one picture. The result is a spectacular portrait of how stars form and influence their surroundings in space.
But this glowing cradle of newborn stars also gives astronomers clues about what our universe may have looked like when it was a young whippersnapper.
“The Small Magellanic Cloud is less rich in elements heavier than helium,” according to the European Space Agency, which owns and operates Hubble with NASA. “This makes conditions in the galaxy similar to what existed in the early universe.”
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