NGC 346

Offener Sternhaufen
NGC 346
Der offene Sternhaufen NGC 346 in der kleinen Magellanschen Wolke aufgenommen vom 2.2-metre MPG/ESO-Teleskop.
Der offene Sternhaufen NGC 346 in der kleinen Magellanschen Wolke aufgenommen vom 2.2-metre MPG/ESO-Teleskop.
AladinLite
SternbildTukan
Position
Äquinoktium: J2000.0
Rektaszension00h 59m 05,0s [1]
Deklination−72° 10′ 38″ [1]
Erscheinungsbild

Helligkeit (visuell)+10,3 mag
Winkel­ausdehnung14/11 [2]
Anzahl Sterne70.000
Rötung (Farbexzess E(B-V))0,037 [1]
Physikalische Daten

ZugehörigkeitKMW
Entfernung 210.000 Lj
Geschichte
Entdeckt vonJames Dunlop
Entdeckungszeit1. August 1826
Katalogbezeichnungen
 NGC 346 • Dun 25 • ESO 51-SC10 • GC 187 • Lindsay 60 • Kron 39 • h 2370

NGC 346 ist ein Offener Sternhaufen in einem Emissionsnebel der kleinen Magellanschen Wolke im Sternbild Tukan am Südsternhimmel. Er hat eine scheinbare Helligkeit von +10,3 mag. Der Haufen ist rund 210.000 Lichtjahre von unserem Sonnensystem entfernt und hat einen Durchmesser von etwa 200 Lichtjahren.[3]

Aktuelle Bilder des Hubble-Teleskops lassen 70.000 Sterne in dem Nebel erkennen, wovon die ältesten 4,5 Milliarden Jahre und die jüngsten ca. 5 Millionen Jahre alt sind.[4]

Das Objekt wurde am 1. August 1826 von dem schottischen Astronomen James Dunlop entdeckt.[5]

Weblinks

Commons: NGC 346 – Sammlung von Bildern, Videos und Audiodateien

Einzelnachweise

  1. ↑ a b NASA/IPAC EXTRAGALACTIC DATABASE
  2. ↑ NGC 346
  3. ↑ http://www.eso.org/public/germany/news/eso1008/
  4. ↑ astronews.com 23. März 2018
  5. ↑ Seligman

Auf dieser Seite verwendete Medien

Webb Inspects NGC 346 (NIRCam Image) (weic2301a).jpeg
(c) NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI, A. Pagan (STScI), CC BY 4.0
This image features NGC 346, one of the most dynamic star-forming regions in nearby galaxies, as seen by the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope.NCG 346 is located in the Small Magellanic Cloud (SMC), a dwarf galaxy close to our Milky Way. [Image Description: A star forming region sweeps across the scene, dominated by hues of purple. Tones of yellow outline the region's irregular shape. Many bright stars dominate the scne, as well as countless smaller stars the scatter the image's background.]
NGC 346 (MIRI image) (weic2324a).jpg
(c) NASA, ESA, CSA, N. Habel (JPL), P. Kavanagh (Maynooth University), CC BY 4.0
This new infrared image of NGC 346 from the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope’s Mid-Infrared Instrument (MIRI) traces emission from cool gas and dust. In this image blue represents silicates and sooty chemical molecules known as polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, or PAHs. More diffuse red emission shines from warm dust heated by the brightest and most massive stars in the heart of the region. Bright patches and filaments mark areas with abundant numbers of protostars. This image includes 7.7-micron light shown in blue, 10 microns in cyan, 11.3 microns in green, 15 microns in yellow, and 21 microns in red (770W, 1000W, 1130W, 1500W, and 2100W filters, respectively).[Image description: The lower half of this image contains arcs of bluish material that form a boat-like shape. One end of these arcs points to the top right of the image, while the other end points toward the bottom left. Another plume of blue filaments expands from the centre to the top left, resembling the mast of a sailboat. Within and extending beyond the boat shape are translucent curtains of pink, which cover most of the image. Stars are noticeably scarce. A couple dozen bright pink patches with six short diffraction spikes are scattered within the blue filaments. Many faint blue dots, or stars, also speckle the background, which is black or dark grey.]
Video Tour of NGC 346 (JWST).webm
This video tours areas of NGC 346, one of the most dynamic star-forming regions in nearby galaxies. NGC 346, a star cluster that lies within a nebula, is located 210,000 light years away. It resides within the Small Magellanic Cloud, a dwarf galaxy close to our Milky Way. 

New findings from NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope reveal the presence of a much more intricate network of gas and dust structures than previously discovered in the area. Within a plume of gas is cold molecular hydrogen, which provides a perfect environment for young stars to form, some of which can be seen in the image. These young stars generate energy that heats the gas, energizing and splitting the molecular hydrogen. This effectively carves rough ridges into the gas.

Another area at upper right appears to show the head of a dragon, spitting out balls of hot gas. Its “eye” and the balls of gas are areas of active star formation, which will continue to change the environment around it. 

The wisps seen in the image at upper right are more evidence of that environmental change. Winds from nearby stars are blowing away material that surrounds still-forming stars, leaving these small structures behind. 

Around the arc, we see curly ribbons of glowing gas that outline the cold molecular gas of the region. These many pillars of creation show how pervasive the stellar erosion is in the region.

Eventually, over millions of years, the mixture of energized and dense hydrogen will give way to thousands of stars and far more of these filamentary structures.
ESO-NGC346.jpg
Autor/Urheber: ESO, Lizenz: CC BY 4.0
NGC 346, the brightest star-forming region in the neighbouring Small Magellanic Cloud galaxy, some 210 000 light-years away from Earth. The light, wind and heat given off by massive stars have dispersed the glowing gas within and around this star cluster, forming a surrounding wispy nebular structure that looks like a cobweb. NGC 346 is located in the constellation Tucana (the Toucan) and spans approximately 200 light-years. This particular image was obtained using the Wide Field Imager instrument at the 2.2-metre MPG/ESO telescope at the La Silla Observatory in Chile. Images like this help astronomers chronicle star birth and evolution, while offering glimpses of how stellar development influences the appearance of the cosmic environment over time. This is an enhanced colour image based on three different broadband filters (B, V, R), as well as a narrowband filter (H-alpha, shown in blue).. The field of view is about 30 arcminutes wide.