File:NGC 346 (49909108843).png

English: Got into a bit of a fake / joke argument with Cory Schmitz over on Twitter about the Small Magellenic Cloud being boring, and realized I didn't have much imagery from the SMC! This addition will make two. The SMC isn't necessarily boring, but it is, well, smaller, and has perhaps fewer things going on in it. But those things are still just as wonderful to look at! This is an active star-forming region with central a bright, blueish star cluster, and also an overlapping, older, redder cluster near the top. The cluster near the top looks kind of like one of those more diffuse globular clusters, but I looked around and couldn't find anyone calling it that. Anyway, it's surely one of the most beautiful vistas in our cosmic neighborhood.

Wispy, cloud-like structures are always associated with star formation, and here all the soft pinks and blues are gas giving off its own glow after getting energized by the very bright, newly formed stars. Dark clouds are places where dust is thick enough that light from any glowing gas and stars is being blocked. Sometimes the dust likes to blend into the background darkness of the sky, and we can't even tell it's there in visible wavelengths.

This particular dataset is very interesting to work with because there is a 2004 set and a 2015 set, giving an 11 year difference to compare the two. It's really fun to blink the two back and forth and find all the stars with high proper motions, a few variable stars, and even an apparent dust-enshrouded star either brightening, or becoming exposed out of its dusty envelope. Not sure what's going on there, but I did make an animation about it that I posted over at Twitter.

One thing I gotta do here is pay tribute to this earlier version of the image, processed years before I ever started doing this: hubblesite.org/contents/news-releases/2005/news-2005-35.html

It's a pretty challenging set of filters to work with, and it's very easy to get some very out of balance colors out of it. So, kudos to those past and future who attempt this one.

Data from the following proposals were used to create this image: Current star formation in young, compact clusters in the Small Magellanic Cloud A 3D view of massive cluster formation in the SMC

50% Luminosity layer: ACS/WFC F685N Red screen: ACS/WFC F685N Red: ACS/WFC F814W Green: Pseudo Blue: ACS/WFC F555W

North is 2.5° clockwise from up.