APOD: NGC 602 and Beyond (2021 May 16)

[APOD Robot]

NGC 602 and Beyond

Explanation: The clouds may look like an oyster, and the stars like pearls, but look beyond. Near the outskirts of the Small Magellanic Cloud, a satellite galaxy some 200 thousand light-years distant, lies 5 million year young star cluster NGC 602. Surrounded by natal gas and dust, NGC 602 is featured in this stunning Hubble image of the region. Fantastic ridges and swept back shapes strongly suggest that energetic radiation and shock waves from NGC 602's massive young stars have eroded the dusty material and triggered a progression of star formation moving away from the cluster's center. At the estimated distance of the Small Magellanic Cloud, the featured picture spans about 200 light-years, but a tantalizing assortment of background galaxies are also visible in this sharp multi-colored view. The background galaxies are hundreds of millions of light-years or more beyond NGC 602.

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[Ann]

The open jaws of nebula N90 with cluster NGC 602 inside. NASA, ESA, Hubble Heritage team

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Image: Mediadrumimages/EuanRannachan/@E

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N90, the nebula housing NGC 602, is the Jaws Nebula!

There are two things that I particularly love about NGC 602 (and beyond):

Closeup of cluster NGC 602.

The Pleiades and the surrounding field. Image: NOAO/SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARY.

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The first thing that I love about it is the cluster itself, NGC 602. And what I particularly love about it is that you can see so clearly that there are a lot of faint stars in this cluster surrounding the relatively few brilliantly bright cluster members.

That is how star formation works. There are always many more small faint stars than large bright ones formed in every burst of star formation. Over time the small light-weight stars get scattered farther away, so that the visible cluster center appears to contain only the bright stars, and no surplus of faint stars. That is what has happened to the Pleiades, for example.

I should point out the star that is responsible for doing most of the ionizing of the magnificent N90 (Jaws) Nebula. It is the brightest star in the field, and in the closeup that I posted, it is located at upper right (not top right). In the APOD, it is at upper center.

Wikipedia wrote:

NGC 602 includes many young O and B stars and young stellar objects, with few evolved stars.[9] Ionisation in the nebula is dominated by Sk 183, an extremely hot O3 main sequence star visible as the bright isolated star at the centre of the Hubble image.

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The second thing I really love about the Hubble image of NGC 602 is the beautiful little background spiral galaxy, seen in the image above at left. Isn't it perfect?

Ann

[heehaw]

Yesterday I joined Ann in gushing (lovely word, gushing!) at the colors. But I was stunned today to see its solemn opposite: Austere beauty! Even better!

[orin stepanek]

The beauty APOD brings keeps me back every day!

[VictorBorun]

NGC 602.png

Closeup of cluster NGC 602.

The Pleiades and the surrounding field. Image: NOAO/SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARY.

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Over time the small light-weight stars get scattered farther away, so that the visible cluster center appears to contain only the bright stars, and no surplus of faint stars. That is what has happened to the Pleiades, for example.
Ann

These 4 processes must take different time:
1) in 30 thousand years rogue planets and red dwarfs are born;
2) in 300 thousand years large blue stars are born and blow away the gas stopping the birth of any more stars;
3) in 3 million years the rogue planets/red dwarfs/large blue stars settle by odd close encounters, with rogue planets getting kicked to the periphery if not out of the cluster and large blue stars sinking to the center;
4) in 30 million years large blue stars go supernova, leaving behind a neutron star or a black hole with an odd kick and a 3 ly nebula to recycle more rogue planets and red dwarfs; all this somewhat blurs the concentric spheric layers of the cluster population.

[VictorBorun]

some confectioners produce chocolate sets of Solar system planets.
Why do not some Christmas decoration manufacturers produce sets of Famous Nebula Glass Spheres ?

With a booklet of astro pics to show how to turn a sphere for a correct earth-based view of the Jaws and others.

[johnnydeep]

Other than the clearly identified background galaxies, how many of the point-ish sources in this photo are part of NGC 602? I presume all the bright blue stars with well-defined diffraction spikes are, but what about the many - hundreds? - of much smaller and less clearly blue other "stars"? Are they just members of the SMC? For example these "pointed" to by red lines:

NGC 602 Dimmer Members?

(Arrows are a pain to draw by hand so I just use lines to "point". Sadly, even straight lines are hard to draw ]

[orin stepanek]

Other than the clearly identified background galaxies, how many of the point-ish sources in this photo are part of NGC 602? I presume all the bright blue stars with well-defined diffraction spikes are, but what about the many - hundreds? - of much smaller and less clearly blue other "stars"? Are they just members of the SMC? For example these "pointed" to by red lines:


NGC 602.JPG


(Arrows are a pain to draw by hand so I just use lines to "point". Sadly, even straight lines are hard to draw ]

Johnny; You can use the arrows and circles in paint to do the work for you! Put your picture in a file and push edit! you may have to practice! Hope this helps!

[ta152h0]

Wonder what this looks like when the James Webb telescope is in operation and taking this picture? pass the ice cold one

[johnnydeep]

Other than the clearly identified background galaxies, how many of the point-ish sources in this photo are part of NGC 602? I presume all the bright blue stars with well-defined diffraction spikes are, but what about the many - hundreds? - of much smaller and less clearly blue other "stars"? Are they just members of the SMC? For example these "pointed" to by red lines:


NGC 602.JPG


(Arrows are a pain to draw by hand so I just use lines to "point". Sadly, even straight lines are hard to draw ]

Johnny; You can use the arrows and circles in paint to do the work for you! Put your picture in a file and push edit! you may have to practice! Hope this helps!

I know. But because of the extra step that entails, I use the built-in editor in the MS screen grab app which is severely limited. Also, if I just save the image from the APOD screen, the size might be too big to include it in a post. But I have to save the screen grabbed image to a file anyway in order to attach it to a post, so it’s really not bad if I save it first, and edit it with a decent editor. I’ll be less lazy next time.

[orin stepanek]

Kerstie Shaw

Other than the clearly identified background galaxies, how many of the point-ish sources in this photo are part of NGC 602? I presume all the bright blue stars with well-defined diffraction spikes are, but what about the many - hundreds? - of much smaller and less clearly blue other "stars"? Are they just members of the SMC? For example these "pointed" to by red lines:


NGC 602.JPG


(Arrows are a pain to draw by hand so I just use lines to "point". Sadly, even straight lines are hard to draw

Johnny; You can use the arrows and circles in paint to do the work for you! Put your picture in a file and push edit! you may have to practice! Hope this helps!

I know. But because of the extra step that entails, I use the built-in editor in the MS screen grab app which is severely limited. Also, if I just save the image from the APOD screen, the size might be too big to include it in a post. But I have to save the screen grabbed image to a file anyway in order to attach it to a post, so it’s really not bad if I save it first, and edit it with a decent editor. I’ll be less lazy next time.

You can also use paint to downsize your picture! I have to downsize when I save camera shots; they are really big!