Sunny Priyan
Open star cluster NGC 330 lies around 180,000 light-years away inside the Small Magellanic Cloud.
The cluster located in the constellation Tucana (The Toucan), contains a multitude of stars, many of which are scattered across this striking Hubble Space Telescope image.
One interesting object in this image is the very small star cluster in the lower left corner of the image, surrounded by a nebula of ionized hydrogen (red) and dust (blue).
Named GALFOR 1, the cluster was discovered in 2018 in Hubble's archival data, which was used to produce this image.
Scientists are curious whether the nebula around this star cluster contains a bow shock, a crescent-shaped shock wave created when streams of gas collide.
Hubble's observations of this cluster help investigate why stars in clusters evolve differently and determine the maximum size of stars before they end in supernova explosions.