NGC 602 and Beyond
From NASA’s Astronomy Picture of the Day
Near the outskirts of
the Small Magellanic Cloud, a satellite galaxy some 200 thousand light-years distant, lies 5
million year young star cluster NGC
602.
Surrounded by natal gas
and dust, NGC 602 is
featured in this stunning Hubble image of the region, augmented by images in the X-ray by Chandra, and in the infrared by Spitzer.
Fantastic ridges and swept back shapes strongly suggest that energetic
radiation and shock waves from NGC 602's massive young stars have eroded the
dusty material and triggered a progression of star formation moving away from the cluster's center.
At the estimated
distance of the Small Magellanic Cloud, the
Picture spans about 200
light-years, but a tantalizing assortment of background galaxies are also visible in this
sharp multi-colored view.
The background
galaxies are hundreds of
millions of light-years or more beyond NGC 602.
Image Credit: X-ray: Chandra: NASA/CXC/Univ.Potsdam/L.Oskinova et al;
Optical: Hubble: NASA/STScI; Infrared: Spitzer: NASA/JPL-Caltech