Check out an amazing view of star cluster NGC 602.
It "lies on the outskirts of the Small Magellanic Cloud," according to the Chandra X-ray Telescope team.
Credit: NASA/CXC/A. Hobart
It "lies on the outskirts of the Small Magellanic Cloud," according to the Chandra X-ray Telescope team.
Credit: NASA/CXC/A. Hobart
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TechTranscript
00:00Visit Chandra's Beautiful Universe
00:05NGC 602
00:10Since antiquity, wreaths have symbolized the cycle of life, death, and rebirth.
00:16It is fitting, then, that one of the best places for astronomers to learn more about the stellar life cycle
00:22resembles a giant holiday wreath itself.
00:26The star cluster NGC 602 lies on the outskirts of the small Magellanic Cloud,
00:32which is one of the closest galaxies to the Milky Way, about 200,000 light-years from Earth.
00:40The stars in NGC 602 have fewer, heavier elements compared to the Sun and most of the rest of the galaxy.
00:47Instead, the conditions within NGC 602 mimic those for stars found billions of years ago,
00:54when the universe was much younger.
00:57This new image combines data from NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory and James Webb Space Telescope.
01:03The dark, ring-like outline of the wreath seen in JWST data is made up of dense clouds of filled gas.
01:10Meanwhile, X-rays from Chandra show young, massive stars that are illuminating the wreath,
01:16sending high-energy light into interstellar space.
01:20These X-rays are powered by winds flowing from the young, massive stars that are sprinkled throughout the cluster.
01:27The extended cloud in the Chandra data likely comes from the overlapping X-ray glow
01:31of thousands of young, low-mass stars in the cluster.