Researchers from NASA reported a new observation from the Hubble Space Telescope. Astrophysicists have noticed
The dotted line shows the movement of young stars towards the center of the NGC 346 region. Image: NASA, ESA, Andi James (STScI)
The massive star cluster NGC 346,located in the Small Magellanic Cloud, has long intrigued astronomers with its unusual shape. Astrophysicists have used two separate methods of observation, with the Hubble Telescope and the Very Large Telescope (VLT), to show that the shape of the cluster is due to stars and gas spiraling into the center of the cluster like a river.
Researchers have determined the movement of stars in NGC 346in two different ways. With the help of Hubble, they measured the changes in the position of the stars over 11 years. It turned out that in this region the stars move at an average speed of about 3.3 km/s. The second group measured radial velocities using the VLT and came up with the same values. At the same time, archival observational data show that the movement is carried out in a spiral.
The researchers note that the outer edge of this "river" can accelerate star formation when interacting with galactic gas.
The Small Magellanic Cloud is located ona distance of only 200 thousand light years from the Earth, but at the same time in composition it is very close to the conditions of the early Universe. Studying how stars and complex structures form in this system will help understand the star formation storm that occurred early in the history of the universe, about 2 to 3 billion years after the Big Bang.
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