The Small Magellanic Cloud (SMC) doesn’t get much attention. It’s only visible from the Southern Hemisphere and is obscured by the nearby Large Magellanic Cloud. However, like its bigger brother, the SMC is a dwarf galaxy orbiting our Milky Way galaxy, and is perfect for studying how stars form in a galaxy that’s close to the Milky Way but very different from it.
A great example of this is the Christmas wreath-shaped NGC 602, a cluster of hot, young blue stars born from the collapse of a gas cloud. The gas they formed from still envelops them, but their radiation can be seen burning through it, shaping it, leaving only long pillars of gas that point towards the blue stars.
That gas, however, is different from that found in the much larger Milky Way. The gas in the SMC contains fewer heavy elements than the gas in the Milky Way – created by the explosions and rearrangements of many generations of stars. Astronomers believe NGC 602 is a valuable replica of stars born billions of years ago, when the universe was young. NGC 602 may offer a glimpse into that early universe.
This image is a combination of data captured by the Chandra X-ray Observatory — the world’s most powerful X-ray telescope — and the infrared-sensitive James Webb Space Telescope.
Chandra’s X-ray data, shown in red, reveal the presence of young, massive stars emitting high-energy radiation. JWST’s orange, yellow, green and blue infrared data highlight the region’s complex structures of dust and gas. Together, the data create a view of the life cycle of stars, from their formation to the dispersal of star stuff.
The new composite image of NGC 602 was released by NASA to mark the holiday season, along with a new animated version of NGC 2264, known as the “Christmas Tree Cluster.” The image combines X-ray data from Chandra with optical images taken in November by Arizona-based astrophotographer Michael Clow.