Astronomy Picture of the Day

Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation written by a professional astronomer.

2024 October 29
A starfield is shown featuring many stars in the centre
and many pillars of interstellar dust around the edges
pointing toward the centre. The main image is in infrared
light, and a rollover image from Hubble shows the same
scene in visible light.
Please see the explanation for more detailed information.

NGC 602: Stars Versus Pillars from Webb
Credit: ESA/Webb, NASA & CSA, P. Zeidler, E. Sabbi, A. Nota, M. Zamani (ESA/Webb)

Explanation: The stars are destroying the pillars. More specifically, some of the newly formed stars in the image centre are emitting light so energetic that is evaporating the gas and dust in the surrounding pillars. Simultaneously, the pillars themselves are still trying to form new stars. The whole setting is the star cluster NGC 602, and this new vista was taken by the Webb Space Telescope in multiple infrared colours. In comparison, a roll-over image shows the same star cluster in visible light, taken previously by the Hubble Space Telescope. NGC 602 is located near the perimeter of the Small Magellanic Cloud (SMC), a small satellite galaxy of our Milky Way galaxy. At the estimated distance of the SMC, the featured picture spans about 200 light-years. A tantalizing assortment of background galaxies are also visible -- mostly around the edges -- that are at least hundreds of millions of light-years beyond.

Tomorrow's picture: head space


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