Hubble’s Exquisite View of a Stellar Nursery

Credit: NASA, ESA and A. Nota (STScI/ESA)

The exquisite sharpness of this 2005 image from NASA/ESA's Hubble Space Telescope has plucked out an underlying population of infant stars embedded in the nebula NGC 346 that are still forming from gravitationally collapsing gas clouds. They have not yet ignited their hydrogen fuel to sustain nuclear fusion. The smallest of these infant stars is only half the mass of our Sun.

Source / Image Courtesy

 

A zoom into the nebula NGC 346 in the Small Magellanic Cloud that reveals an underlying population of infant stars and other fine details captured by Hubble's Advanced Camera for Surveys across the galaxy's starburst regions and gas clouds.