Fact Sheet
Distant Nursery
Thousands of stars, some of which are only a few million years old, permeate this vast "stellar nursery" that is about 200,000 light-years away in the Small Magellanic Cloud, a galaxy that orbits the Milky Way. Known as N66, this region contains many hot, blue, massive stars that will burn themselves out in a hurry. Radiation from these stars is blasting away the remaining gas and dust in the nebula that gave them birth. The radiation also causes hydrogen in the nebula to glow pink. The dark stripe across the top of the nebula consists of small clouds of dark, cold dust, which are condensing to form even more new stars. Hubble Space Telescope recently captured this image of the distant cluster and nebula. [Credit: NASA/ESA/A. Nota]
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