Journey to Young Star Cluster NGC 602 in Hydrus | James Webb Space Telescope

Journey to Young Star Cluster NGC 602 in Hydrus | James Webb Space Telescope

This video takes the viewer to the Small Magellanic Cloud galaxy roughly 200,000 light-years from Earth, featuring the young star cluster NGC 602. This new image is from the NASA/European Space Agency/Canadian Space Agency James Webb Space Telescope. The image includes data from Webb’s Near-InfraRed Camera (NIRCam) and  Mid-InfraRed Instrument (MIRI).

The local environment of this cluster is a close analog of what existed in the early Universe with very low abundances of elements heavier than hydrogen and helium. The existence of dark clouds of dense dust and the fact that the cluster is rich in ionized gas also suggest the presence of ongoing star formation processes. This cluster provides a valuable opportunity to examine star formation scenarios under dramatically different conditions from those in our solar neighborhood.

An international team of astronomers, including Peter Zeidler, Elena Sabbi, and Antonella Nota, used Webb to observe NGC 602 and detected candidates for the first young brown dwarfs outside our Milky Way.

Credit: European Space Agency/Webb, NASA & CSA, P. Zeidler, E. Sabbi, A. Nota, M. Zamani (ESA/Webb), N. Bartmann (ESA/Webb)

Duration: 1 minute, 30 seconds

Release Date: Oct. 23, 2024

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