1 min read

Galactic Building Blocks

Galactic building blocks

A satellite galaxy of the Milky Way, the Small Magellanic Cloud (SMC) is a wonder of the southern sky, a mere 210,000 light-years distant in the constellation Tucana.

Found among the SMC's clusters and nebulae NGC 346 is a star forming region about 200 light-years across, pictured above by the Hubble Space Telescope. Astronomers have identified a population of embryonic stars strung along the dark, intersecting dust lanes visible here on the right. Still collapsing within their clouds, the stellar infants' light is reddened by the intervening dust.

Small galaxies like the SMC - and the stellar nurseries within them - are thought to be building blocks for the larger galaxies present today.

Image Credit: NASA/ESA/STScI

From Astronomy Picture of the Day

Share

Details

Last Updated
Apr 17, 2023
Editor
NASA Hubble Mission Team

Related Terms

Explore More

A close-up of a spiral galaxy, seen face-on. Its center is a bright white point, surrounded by a large yellowish oval with thin lines of dust swirling in it. From the sides of the oval emerge two bright spiral arms which wind through the round disk of the galaxy, filled with shining pink spots where stars are forming and more dark reddish dust. Many stars are visible in the foreground, over and around the galaxy.
2 min read

Hubble Images a Grand Spiral

Article1 day ago
4 min read

NASA Successfully Integrates Roman Mission’s Telescope, Instruments

NASA’s Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope team has successfully integrated the mission’s telescope and two instruments onto the instrument carrier, marking the completion of the Roman payload. Now the team at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, will begin joining the payload to the spacecraft. “We’re in the middle of an exciting stage […]

Article2 days ago
Hundreds of overlapping objects at various distances are spread across this field. Galaxies’ colors vary. The majority appear orange, pink, and white, some are shades of orange or blue. Most galaxies appear as fuzzy ovals, but a few have distinctive spiral arms. At the very center is a tiny galaxy nicknamed Firefly Sparkle that looks like a long, angled, dotted line. Smaller companions are nearby.
6 min read

Found: First Actively Forming Galaxy as Lightweight as Young Milky Way

Article3 days ago
Keep Exploring

Discover More Topics From NASA

James Webb Space Telescope

The image is divided horizontally by an undulating line between a cloudscape forming a nebula along the bottom portion and a comparatively clear upper portion. Speckled across both portions is a starfield, showing innumerable stars of many sizes. The smallest of these are small, distant, and faint points of light. The largest of these appear larger, closer, brighter, and more fully resolved with 8-point diffraction spikes. The upper portion of the image is blueish, and has wispy translucent cloud-like streaks rising from the nebula below. The orangish cloudy formation in the bottom half varies in density and ranges from translucent to opaque. The stars vary in color, the majority of which have a blue or orange hue. The cloud-like structure of the nebula contains ridges, peaks, and valleys – an appearance very similar to a mountain range. Three long diffraction spikes from the top right edge of the image suggest the presence of a large star just out of view.

Perseverance Rover

Parker Solar Probe

Juno