NASA's Great Observatories Provide a Sparkly New View of the Small Magellanic Cloud

By Nancy Atkinson - April 3, 2013 at 9:12 PM UTC | Extragalactic
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This is just pretty! NASA's Great Observatories -- the Hubble Space Telescope, the Chandra X-Ray Observatory and the Spitzer Infrared Telescope -- have combined forces to create this new image of the Small Magellanic Cloud. The SMC is one of the Milky Way's closest galactic neighbors. Even though it is a small, or so-called dwarf galaxy, the SMC is so bright that it is visible to the unaided eye from the Southern Hemisphere and near the equator.

What did it take to create this image? Let's take a look at the images from each of the observatories:

[caption id="attachment_101217" align="aligncenter" width="525"]

The Small Magellenic Cloud in X-Ray from the Chandra X-Ray Observatory. Credit: NASA.[/caption]

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The Small Magellenic Cloud in infrared, from the Spitzer Infrared Telescope. Credit: NASA.[/caption]

[caption id="attachment_101219" align="aligncenter" width="525"]

The Small Magellenic Cloud as seen in optical wavelengths from the Hubble Space Telescope. Credit: NASA.[/caption]

The various colors represent wavelengths of light across a broad spectrum. X-rays from NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory are shown in purple; visible-light from NASA's Hubble Space Telescope is colored red, green and blue; and infrared observations from NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope are also represented in red.

The three telescopes highlight different aspects of this lively stellar community. Winds and radiation from massive stars located in the central, disco-ball-like cluster of stars, called NGC 602a, have swept away surrounding material, clearing an opening in the star-forming cloud.

Find out more at this page from

Chandra

, and this one from

JPL.

Nancy Atkinson

Nancy Atkinson

Nancy Atkinson is a space journalist and author with a passion for telling the stories of people involved in space exploration and astronomy. She is currently retired from daily writing, but worked at Universe Today for 20 years as a writer and editor. She also contributed articles to The Planetary Society, Ad Astra (National Space Society), New Scientist and many other online outlets.

Her 2019 book, "Eight Years to the Moon: The History of the Apollo Missions,” shares the untold stories of engineers and scientists who worked behind the scenes to make the Apollo program so successful, despite the daunting odds against it. Her first book “Incredible Stories From Space: A Behind-the-Scenes Look at the Missions Changing Our View of the Cosmos” (2016) tells the stories of 37 scientists and engineers that work on several current NASA robotic missions to explore the solar system and beyond.

Nancy is also a NASA/JPL Solar System Ambassador, and through this program, she has the opportunity to share her passion of space and astronomy with children and adults through presentations and programs. Nancy's personal website is nancyatkinson.com