Space photo of the week: James Webb and Chandra spot a cosmic

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This picture of NGC 602 is a composite of X-ray(red )and infrared (orange, yellow, green and blue)light from the Chandra and James Webb area telescopes, respectively.
(Image credit: X-ray: NASA/CXC/SAO; Optical: Clow, M.; Image Processing: NASA/CXC/SAO/ L. Frattare and K. Arcand )

What it is: NGC 602, a star cluster.

Where it is: 200,000 light-years remote in the Small Magellanic Cloud galaxy.

When it was shared: Dec. 17, 2024.

Why it’s so unique: The Small Magellanic Cloud (SMC) does not get much attention. It’s just noticeable from the Southern Hemisphere and is eclipsed by the close-by Large Magellanic Cloud. Like its larger sibling, the SMC is a dwarf galaxy orbiting our Galaxy galaxyand it’s best for studying how stars form in a galaxy that’s close to, however extremely various from the Milky Way.

A prime example is the Christmas wreath-shaped NGC 602, a cluster of hot, young blue stars born from the collapse of a gas cloud. The gas from which they were formed still capes them, however their radiation can be seen scorching through it, shaping it, leaving just high pillars of gas that point towards the blue stars.

That gas, nevertheless, is various from what is discovered in the far bigger Milky Way. The gas in the SMC consists of less heavy aspects– produced by numerous generations of stars blowing up and reforming– than does the gas in the Milky Way. NGC 602, astronomers believe, is an important imitate of stars born billions of years back, when deep space was more youthful. NGC 602 might provide a glance of what that early universe resembled.

Related: Area image of the week: Hubble spies a ‘cannonball galaxy’ blasting through area

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An uncropped picture of NGC 602. (Image credit: X-ray: NASA/CXC/SAO; Optical: Clow, M.; Image Processing: NASA/CXC/SAO/ L. Frattare and K. Arcand)

This image is a composite of information recorded by the Chandra X-ray Observatory– the world’s most effective X-ray telescope– and the infrared-sensitive James Webb Space Telescope

Chandra’s X-ray information, displayed in red, expose the existence of young, huge stars producing high-energy radiation. JWST’s orange, yellow, green and blue infrared information highlights the area’s elaborate structures of dust and gas. Together, the information produces a view of the life process of stars, from their development to the dispersal of star things.

The brand-new composite picture of NGC 602 was launched by NASA to mark the holiday together with a brand-new animated variation of NGC 2264much better called the “Christmas Tree Cluster.” That image integrates X-ray information from Chandra with optical images from Arizona-based astrophotographer Michael Clow taken in November.

For more superb area images, take a look at our Area Photo of the Week archives

Jamie Carter is an independent reporter and routine Live Science factor based in Cardiff, U.K. He is the author of A Stargazing Program For Beginners and lectures on astronomy and the natural world. Jamie frequently composes for Space.com, TechRadar.com, Forbes Science, BBC Wildlife publication and Scientific American, and numerous others. He modifies WhenIsTheNextEclipse.com.