Hubble Spots Stellar Sculptors In Nearby Galaxy

Explore Hubble

3 Min Read

A star cluster within a nebula. Thin, pale-blue wisps of clouds fill the background while denser areas of pinkish clouds appear superimposed upon them. The star cluster holds bright-blue stars that illuminate the nebula. Large arcs of dense, reddish-brown dust pressed together by the stars' radiation, curve around, in front of, and behind the clustered stars. Many orange stars are visible in the background behind the clouds of the nebula.

This dazzling NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope image features the young star cluster NGC 346.

Credits: ESA/Hubble & NASA, A. Nota, P. Massey, E. Sabbi, C. Murray, M. Zamani (ESA/Hubble)

As part of ESA/Hubble's 35th anniversary celebrations, ESA is sharing a new image series revisiting stunning, previously released Hubble targets with the addition of the latest Hubble data and new processing techniques.

This new image showcases the dazzling young star cluster NGC 346. Although both the James Webb Space Telescope and Hubble have released images of NGC 346 previously, this image includes new data and is the first to combine Hubble observations made at infrared, optical, and ultraviolet wavelengths into an intricately detailed view of this vibrant star-forming factory.

This dazzling NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope image features the young star cluster NGC 346.

ESA/Hubble & NASA, A. Nota, P. Massey, E. Sabbi, C. Murray, M. Zamani (ESA/Hubble)

NGC 346 is in the Small Magellanic Cloud, a satellite galaxy of the Milky Way that lies 200,000 light-years away in the constellation Tucana. The Small Magellanic Cloud is less rich in elements heavier than helium - what astronomers call metals - than the Milky Way. This makes conditions in the galaxy similar to what existed in the early universe.

NGC 346 is home to more than 2,500 newborn stars. The cluster's most massive stars, which are many times more massive than our Sun, blaze with an intense blue light in this image. The glowing pink nebula and snakelike dark clouds are sculpted by the luminous stars in the cluster.

Hubble's exquisite sensitivity and resolution were instrumental in uncovering the secrets of NGC 346's star formation. Using two sets of observations taken 11 years apart, researchers traced the motions of NGC 346's stars, revealing them to be spiraling in toward the center of the cluster. This spiraling motion arises from a stream of gas from outside of the cluster that fuels star formation in the center of the turbulent cloud.

The inhabitants of this cluster are stellar sculptors, carving out a bubble within the nebula. NGC 346's hot, massive stars produce intense radiation and fierce stellar winds that pummel the billowing gas of their birthplace, dispersing the surrounding nebula.

The nebula, named N66, is the brightest example of an H II (pronounced 'H-two') region in the Small Magellanic Cloud. H II regions are set aglow by ultraviolet light from hot, young stars like those in NGC 346. The presence of this nebula indicates the young age of the star cluster, as an H II region shines only as long as the stars that power it - a mere few million years for the massive stars pictured here.

The Hubble Space Telescope has been operating for over three decades and continues to make ground-breaking discoveries that shape our fundamental understanding of the universe. Hubble is a project of international cooperation between NASA and ESA (European Space Agency). NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, manages the telescope and mission operations. Lockheed Martin Space, based in Denver, also supports mission operations at Goddard. The Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore, which is operated by the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy, conducts Hubble science operations for NASA.

Facebook logo

@NASAHubble

Instagram logo

@NASAHubble

Explore Hubble NGC 346 Images and Science

Download the image above

Spatial Distribution of NGC 346 Stars: A black field speckled with white stars, and a large, irregularly shaped patch of purple in the center. Within this purple patch are white stars and other white clumps, along with some thin, dark lanes within the right side of the purple patch. The top half of the purple patch is more densely formed and covered in more white stars and other white clumps than the wispy bottom of the patch. Over the top half of the purple patch is a red spiral with a dashed white line running through its center, like a spine. The red spiral increases in thickness as it approaches the tightest point of the spiral. Beneath the densest part of the spiral is the densest concentration of stars.

NASA's Hubble Finds Spiraling Stars, Providing Window into Early Universe

Against a dark swath of space, a bright pink, cloudy region is in the center, roughly resembling the shape of a pig.

Young Stars Sculpt Gas with Powerful Outflows in the Small Magellanic Cloud

Against a dark swath of space, a bright cloudy region is in the center, roughly resembling the shape of a pig.

Hubble's Black and White View

Infant Stars in the Small Magellanic Cloud

A grouping of large, glowing, and purplish stars dominate the image's center. Dark ridges of gas and dust are visible around them, with more background stars crowding the view.

Hubble Captures Unique Ultraviolet View of a Spectacular Star Cluster

Details

Last Updated

Apr 04, 2025

Editor

Andrea Gianopoulos

Location

NASA Goddard Space Flight Center

/Public Release. This material from the originating organization/author(s) might be of the point-in-time nature, and edited for clarity, style and length. Mirage.News does not take institutional positions or sides, and all views, positions, and conclusions expressed herein are solely those of the author(s).View in full here.