NGC 602 is a young, bright
open cluster
An open cluster is a type of star cluster made of up to a few thousand stars that were formed from the same giant molecular cloud and have roughly the same age. More than 1,100 open clusters have been discovered within the Milky Way galaxy, and ...
of
star
A star is an astronomical object comprising a luminous spheroid of plasma (physics), plasma held together by its gravity. The List of nearest stars and brown dwarfs, nearest star to Earth is the Sun. Many other stars are visible to the naked ...
s located in the
Small Magellanic Cloud
The Small Magellanic Cloud (SMC), or Nubecula Minor, is a dwarf galaxy near the Milky Way. Classified as a dwarf irregular galaxy, the SMC has a D25 isophotal diameter of about , and contains several hundred million stars. It has a total mass of ...
(SMC), a
satellite galaxy
A satellite galaxy is a smaller companion galaxy that travels on bound orbits within the gravitational potential of a more massive and luminous host galaxy (also known as the primary galaxy). Satellite galaxies and their constituents are bound ...
to the
Milky Way
The Milky Way is the galaxy that includes our Solar System, with the name describing the galaxy's appearance from Earth: a hazy band of light seen in the night sky formed from stars that cannot be individually distinguished by the naked eye ...
. It is embedded in a
nebula
A nebula ('cloud' or 'fog' in Latin; pl. nebulae, nebulæ or nebulas) is a distinct luminescent part of interstellar medium, which can consist of ionized, neutral or molecular hydrogen and also cosmic dust. Nebulae are often star-forming regio ...
known as N90.
Radiation
In physics, radiation is the emission or transmission of energy in the form of waves or particles through space or through a material medium. This includes:
* ''electromagnetic radiation'', such as radio waves, microwaves, infrared, visi ...
and
shock wave
In physics, a shock wave (also spelled shockwave), or shock, is a type of propagating disturbance that moves faster than the local speed of sound in the medium. Like an ordinary wave, a shock wave carries energy and can propagate through a med ...
s from the stars of NGC 602 have pushed away much of the lighter surrounding
gas and dust that is N90, and this in turn has triggered new
in the ridges (or "
elephant trunks") of the nebula. These even younger, pre-
main sequence
In astronomy, the main sequence is a continuous and distinctive band of stars that appears on plots of stellar color versus brightness. These color-magnitude plots are known as Hertzsprung–Russell diagrams after their co-developers, Ejnar Her ...
stars are still enshrouded in dust but are visible to the
Spitzer Space Telescope
The Spitzer Space Telescope, formerly the Space Infrared Telescope Facility (SIRTF), was an infrared space telescope launched in 2003. Operations ended on 30 January 2020. Spitzer was the third space telescope dedicated to infrared astronomy, f ...
at
infrared
Infrared (IR), sometimes called infrared light, is electromagnetic radiation (EMR) with wavelengths longer than those of visible light. It is therefore invisible to the human eye. IR is generally understood to encompass wavelengths from around ...
wavelengths. The cluster is of particular interest because it is located in the wing of the SMC leading to the
Magellanic Bridge
The Magellanic Bridge (MBR) is a stream of neutral hydrogen that links the two Magellanic Clouds,
with a few known stars inside it. It should not be confused with the Magellanic Stream, which links the Magellanic Clouds to the Milky Way. It wa ...
. Hence, while its chemical properties should be similar to those of the rest of the
galaxy
A galaxy is a system of stars, stellar remnants, interstellar gas, dust, dark matter, bound together by gravity. The word is derived from the Greek ' (), literally 'milky', a reference to the Milky Way galaxy that contains the Solar System. ...
, it is relatively isolated and so easier to study.
NGC 602 contains three main condensations of stars. The central core is NGC 602a, with the compact NGC 602b 100 arc-seconds to the NNW. NGC 602c is a looser grouping 11 arc-minutes to the NE, which includes the
WO star AB8.
NGC 602 includes many young O and B stars and
young stellar object
Young stellar object (YSO) denotes a star in its early stage of evolution. This class consists of two groups of objects: protostars and pre-main-sequence stars.
Classification by spectral energy distribution
A star forms by accumulation of mate ...
s, with few evolved stars. Ionisation in the nebula is dominated by
Sk 183, an extremely hot O3 main sequence star visible as the bright isolated star at the centre of the Hubble image.
A number of other, more distant galaxies also appear in the background of the
Hubble
The Hubble Space Telescope (often referred to as HST or Hubble) is a space telescope that was launched into low Earth orbit in 1990 and remains in operation. It was not the first space telescope, but it is one of the largest and most versa ...
images of NGC 602, making for a "tantalizing"
[APOD: 2007 January 10 - NGC 602 and Beyond](_blank)
/ref> and "grand"
References
External links
*
NGC 602: Taken Under the "Wing" of the Small Magellanic CloudJan 8, 2007 NASA/ESA HST news and photo release on N90 (at the heart of which lies NGC 602)NASA/ESA video 'Zooming on NGC 602'
(Hubble Space Telescope
The Hubble Space Telescope (often referred to as HST or Hubble) is a space telescope that was launched into low Earth orbit in 1990 and remains in operation. It was not the first space telescope, but it is one of the largest and most versa ...
)
NGC 602 @ SEDS NGC objects pages
"Progressive star formation in the young SMC cluster NGC 602" Carlson, L. R., et al., 2007 ApJL 665, 109 "The Initial Mass Function of the Stellar Association NGC 602 in the Small Magellanic Cloud with Hubble Space Telescope ACS Observations" Schmalzl, M., et al. 2008 ApJ 681, 290"NGC 602 Environment, Kinematics and Origins" Nigra, L., et al., 2008 PASP 120, 972
{{DEFAULTSORT:NGC 0602
0602
Open clusters
Small Magellanic Cloud
Hydrus
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