NASA / ESA’s Hubble Space Telescope has captured a hidden galaxy 11 million light-years from Earth, and now, this incredible image of stellar factory of NGC 346. This star-forming region spans 200 light-years across and is a part of the Small Magellanic Cloud (SMC) located 210,000 light-years from Earth. Upon closer inspection, you’ll see a group of infant stars embedded in the nebula NGC 346.
The infant stars observed are basically forming from gravitationally collapsing gas clouds, and have yet to ignite their hydrogen fuel to sustain nuclear fusion. However, even the smallest of these infant stars is only half the mass of our Sun. Although star factories are common within the disk of our galaxy, this smaller companion galaxy is more primitive because it lacks a large percentage of the heavier elements that are forged in successive generations of stars through nuclear fusion.
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The SMC offers a unique nearby laboratory for understanding how stars arose in the early Universe. Nestled among other starburst regions within the small galaxy, nebula NGC 346 alone contains more than 2500 infant stars,” said the ESA.
