Sunny Priyan
Tucana may be known for 47 Tucanae and the Tucana Dwarf Galaxy, but it also hides many unsung cosmic beauties.
Credit: ESA/Hubble & NASA
One such beauty is NGC 299, an open star cluster located within the Small Magellanic Cloud, just under 200,000 light-years away.
Credit: ESA/Hubble & NASA
Open clusters such as this are collections of stars weakly bound by the shackles of gravity, all of which formed from the same massive molecular cloud of gas and dust.
Credit: ESA/Hubble & NASA
Because of this, all the stars have the same age and composition, but vary in their mass because they formed at different positions within the cloud.
Image Credit: Pixabay
This unique property ensures a spectacular sight when viewed through a sophisticated instrument such as Hubble’s Advanced Camera for Surveys.
Image Credit: Pixabay
It allows astronomers a cosmic laboratory in which to study the formation and evolution of stars-a process that is thought to depend strongly on a star’s mass.
Credit: ESA/Hubble & NASA