Sunny Priyan
The Small Magellanic Cloud (SMC) is a dwarf galaxy and one of the Milky Way’s nearest neighbours, lying only about 200,000 light-years from Earth.
Image Credit: ESA/Hubble and NASA
It makes a pair with the Large Magellanic Cloud, and both objects are best seen from the Southern Hemisphere, but are visible from some northern latitudes as well.
Image Credit: ESA/Hubble and NASA
Hubble captures NGC 376, a brilliant star cluster in the Small Magellanic Cloud with 3,400 times the Sun’s mass.
Image Credit: ESA/Hubble and NASA
The Small Magellanic Cloud contains hundreds of millions of stars, but this image focuses on just a small fraction of them.
Image Credit: Pexels
These stars comprise the open cluster NGC 376, which has a total mass only about 3,400 times that of the Sun.
Image Credit: Pexels
Unlike densely packed globular clusters, open clusters are loosely bound and sparsely populated, revealing individual stars instead of a central blur.
Image Credit: ESA/Hubble and NASA