Milky Way's closest neighboring galaxies, the Small Magellanic Cloud (SMC) about 200,000 light years away
Say hello to one of our Milky Way's closest neighboring galaxies, the Small Magellanic Cloud (SMC). The dwarf galaxy is located about 200,000 light-years away, which makes it close enough to be visible from Earth without the help of a telescope or binoculars. For viewers in the Southern and some latitudes in the Northern hemisphere, the SMC resembles a piece of the Milky Way that has broken off — though it is much farther away than any part of our own galaxy.
In this image, we can see SMC in higher detail than what we would be able to see with our own eyes. This is thanks to Hubble's Wide Field Camera, which was used by astronomers to observe the galaxy through four different filters. Each filter permits different wavelengths of light, creating a multicolored view of dust clouds drifting across a field of stars. Here, Hubble is zoomed in on a small region of the SMC, to a star cluster that is home to dozens of massive young stars.
Image description: An area of space filled with stars. Most of the stars are small, distant dots in a range of orange colors; closer stars shine with a bright glow and hold four thin diffraction spikes around them. These closer stars appear both bluish and reddish. Clouds from a nebula cover the left half of the scene, giving it a blue-greenish cast. More clouds also drift over the black background of space on the right side of the image.
Credit: European Space Agency/Hubble & NASA, C. Murray
Say hello to one of our Milky Way's closest neighboring galaxies, the Small Magellanic Cloud (SMC). The dwarf galaxy is located about 200,000 light-years away, which makes it close enough to be visible from Earth without the help of a telescope or binoculars. For viewers in the Southern and some latitudes in the Northern hemisphere, the SMC resembles a piece of the Milky Way that has broken off — though it is much farther away than any part of our own galaxy.
In this image, we can see SMC in higher detail than what we would be able to see with our own eyes. This is thanks to Hubble's Wide Field Camera, which was used by astronomers to observe the galaxy through four different filters. Each filter permits different wavelengths of light, creating a multicolored view of dust clouds drifting across a field of stars. Here, Hubble is zoomed in on a small region of the SMC, to a star cluster that is home to dozens of massive young stars.
Image description: An area of space filled with stars. Most of the stars are small, distant dots in a range of orange colors; closer stars shine with a bright glow and hold four thin diffraction spikes around them. These closer stars appear both bluish and reddish. Clouds from a nebula cover the left half of the scene, giving it a blue-greenish cast. More clouds also drift over the black background of space on the right side of the image.
Credit: European Space Agency/Hubble & NASA, C. Murray