A Hubble Space Telescope image of NGC 346, a star-forming region in the Small Magellanic Cloud, 210,000 light-years away. The image shows a massive star cluster embedded in a gas and dust cloud, with visible and near-infrared light appearing blue and green, and atomic hydrogen emission in red. The cluster contains both massive, short-lived stars and a population of much younger stars, only 3-5 million years old, that haven't yet begun hydrogen fusion in their cores. The stellar winds and radiation from the larger stars carve a 200 light-year wide cavity in the surrounding nebula.

Astronomy Picture from 28/09/2008

Young Stars of NGC 346

Source: https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap080928.html


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