What's New

Small Magellanic Cloud: Dwarf Galaxy

News: NASA’s James Webb telescope, the most powerful telescope in the world, has discovered a star formation in a dynamic cluster that is located within a nebula 200,000 light years away.

• The Small Magellanic Cloud (SMC) star-forming region NGC 346 is a dwarf galaxy and one of the most dynamic neighbouring galaxies, according to the American space agency.
• It has a lower concentration of metals and is close to the Milky Way.
• The Magellanic Clouds are two irregular galaxies that are 22° distant in the sky, close to the south celestial pole, and share a gaseous envelope.
• They are made up of the Small Magellanic Cloud (SMC) and the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC), two irregular galaxies that orbit the Milky Way once every 900 million years and each other every 1,500 million years.
• The Portuguese explorer Ferdinand Magellan, whose crew found these companion galaxies during the first round-the-world expedition, was given credit for giving them their names (1519–22).
• The Magellanic Clouds were created some 13 billion years ago, at the same time as the Milky Way Galaxy.
• They have had several tidal interactions with the Milky Way Galaxy and each other while they are now being held captive in orbits around it.
• Along with some much older stars, they are home to many young stars and star clusters.
• In the Southern Hemisphere, the Magellanic Clouds are visible to the unaided eye.