![A new infrared image of NGC 346 from the Mid-Infrared Instrument on NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope.](https://cdn.arstechnica.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/ngc346-800x820.jpg)
NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI, Nolan Habel (NASA-JPL)
Good morning. It’s October 23, and today’s image includes a recent view of a star cluster throughout the Small Magellanic Cloud, one in every of the closest galaxies to Earth. This galaxy has an estimated 3 billion stars, which feels like lots. Nonetheless it’s tiny in comparison with the closest galaxy that’s of an analogous size to our own Milky Way. That might be the Andromeda Galaxy, which has an estimated 1 trillion stars. That is … lots.
Anyway, one in every of the best features within the Small Magellanic Cloud is a very vivid cluster of stars referred to as NGC 346, discovered about 200 years ago by a Scottish astronomer. A few of these stars could also be as young as 2 million years old.
In today’s image, we get an infrared view of NGC 346 from NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope. On this image, blue represents silicates and sooty chemical molecules referred to as polycyclic fragrant hydrocarbons. Based on NASA, an arc at the middle left could also be a mirrored image of sunshine from the star near the arc’s center. The brilliant patches and filaments mark areas with abundant numbers of protostars. Astronomers searched for the reddest stars and located 1,001 pinpoint sources of sunshine, most of them young stars still embedded of their dusty cocoons.
Source: NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope.
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