Ngc 602 - Blog Posts

Near the outskirts of the Small Magellanic Cloud, lies 5 million year old star cluster, NGC 602. Surrounded by gas and dust, NGC 602 is featured in this stunning optical Hubble image of the region, is a combination of 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. 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