NASA·APOD每日天文一图2022.5.12 [超高清]

The massive stars of NGC 346 are short lived, but very energetic. The star cluster is embedded in the largest star forming region in the Small Magellanic Cloud, some 210,000 light-years distant. Their winds and radiation sweep out an interstellar cavern in the gas and dust cloud about 200 light-years across, triggering star formation and sculpting the region's dense inner edge. Cataloged as N66, the star forming region also appears to contain a large population of infant stars. A mere 3 to 5 million years old and not yet burning hydrogen in their cores, the infant stars are strewn about the embedded star cluster. In this false-color Hubble Space Telescope image, visible and near-infrared light are seen as blue and green, while light from atomic hydrogen emission is red. 

NGC 346的大质量恒星寿命很短，但能量非常充沛。星团位于小麦哲伦星云中最大的恒星形成区，距离我们约21万光年。它们的波和辐射席卷了大约200光年宽的气体和尘埃云中的一个星际洞穴，触发了恒星的形成，并塑造了该区域稠密的内边缘。被归类为N66的恒星形成区似乎也包含大量的新生恒星。这些新生恒星只有300万到500万年的历史，其核心尚未燃烧氢气，它们散布在嵌入的星团周围。在这张哈勃太空望远镜的复原彩色图像中，可见光和近红外光显示为蓝色和绿色，而氢原子发射的光显示为红色。