Near the outskirts of the Small Magellanic Cloud [
http://antwrp.gsfc.…], a satellite galaxy some 200 thousand light-years distant, lies 5 million year young [
http://en.wikipedia…] star cluster NGC 602. Surrounded by natal gas and dust, NGC 602 is featured in this stunning Hubble image [
http://hubblesite.o…2007/04/ ] of the region. Fantastic [
http://antwrp.gsfc.…] 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 [
http://heritage.sts…] moving away from the cluster's center. At the estimated distance of the Small Magellanic Cloud, the picture spans about 200 light-years, but a tantalizing [
http://hubblesite.o…image/a/format/zoom ] assortment of background galaxies are also visible in the sharp Hubble view. The background galaxies [
http://www.noao.edu…bggalaxies.html ] are hundreds of millions of light-years or more beyond NGC 602.
Explanation
Near the outskirts of the Small Magellanic Cloud [
http://antwrp.gsfc.…], a satellite galaxy some 200 thousand light-years distant, lies 5 million year young [
http://en.wikipedia…] star cluster NGC 602. Surrounded by natal gas and dust, NGC 602 is featured in this stunning Hubble image [
http://hubblesite.o…2007/04/ ] of the region. Fantastic [
http://antwrp.gsfc.…] 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 [
http://heritage.sts…] moving away from the cluster's center. At the estimated distance of the Small Magellanic Cloud, the picture spans about 200 light-years, but a tantalizing [
http://hubblesite.o…image/a/format/zoom ] assortment of background galaxies are also visible in the sharp Hubble view. The background galaxies [
http://www.noao.edu…bggalaxies.html ] are hundreds of millions of light-years or more beyond NGC 602.
Explanation
