Template:POTD/2007-06-24
Picture of the day archives
:
2007 June
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2007 June 23
2007 June 25
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Picture of the day
NGC 602
is the designation for a particular young, bright
open cluster
of
stars
located in the
Small Magellanic Cloud
, a
satellite galaxy
to our own
Milky Way
.
Radiation
and
shock waves
from the star cluster have pushed away much of the lighter surrounding
gas
and
dust
that compose the
nebula
known as N90, and this in turn has triggered new star formation in the ridges (or "elephant trunks") of the nebula. These even younger stars are still enshrouded in dust but are visible to the
Spitzer Space Telescope
at
infrared
wavelengths. A number of other, more distant
galaxies
also appear in the background of the image.
Photo credit:
Hubble Space Telescope
Archive
–
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