A riotous expanse of gas, dust, and stars stake out the dazzling territory of a duo of star clusters in this combined image from NASA’s Hubble and Webb space telescopes.
Open clusters NGC 460 and NGC 456 reside in the Small Magellanic Cloud, a dwarf galaxy orbiting the Milky Way. Open clusters consist of anywhere from a few dozen to a few thousand young stars loosely bound together by gravity. These particular clusters are part of an extensive complex of star clusters and nebulae that are likely linked to one another. As clouds of gas collapse, stars are born. These young, hot stars expel intense stellar winds that shape the nebulae around them, carving out the clouds and triggering other collapses, which in turn give rise to more stars.
In these images, Hubble’s view captures the glowing, ionized gas as stellar radiation blows “bubbles” in the clouds of gas and dust (blue), while Webb’s infrared vision highlights the clumps and delicate filamentary structures of dust (red). In Hubble images, dust is often seen silhouetted against and blocking light, but in Webb’s view, the dust – warmed by starlight – shines with its own infrared glow. This mixture of gas and dust between the universe’s stars is known as the interstellar medium.
The nodules visible in these images are scenes of active star formation, with stars ranging from just one to 10 million years old. In contrast, our Sun is 4.5 billion years old. The region that holds these clusters, known as the N83-84-85 complex, is home to multiple, rare O-type stars, hot and extremely massive stars that burn hydrogen like our Sun. Astronomers estimate there are only around 20,000 O-type stars among the approximately 400 billion stars in the Milky Way.
The Small Magellanic Cloud is of great interest to researchers because it is less enriched in metals than the Milky Way. Astronomers call all elements heavier than hydrogen and helium – that is, with more than two protons in the atom’s nucleus – “metals.” This state mimics conditions in the early universe, so the Small Magellanic Cloud provides a relatively nearby laboratory to explore theories about star formation and the interstellar medium at early stages of cosmic history. With these observations of NGC 460 and NGC 456, researchers intend to study how gas flows in the region converge or divide; refine the collision history between the Small Magellanic Cloud and its fellow dwarf galaxy, the Large Magellanic Cloud; examine how bursts of star formation occur in such gravitational interactions between galaxies; and better understand the interstellar medium.
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Media Contact:
Claire Andreoli
NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD
[email protected]
