Exploring the colours of the Small Magellanic Cloud
Copyright: ESA/NASA/JPL-Caltech/STScI
Astronomical images often look like works of art. This picture of one
of our nearest neighbouring galaxies, the Small Magellanic Cloud, is
certainly no exception!
The scene is actually a collaboration between two cosmic artists — ESA’s Herschel space observatory and NASA’s Spitzer space telescope.
The image is reminiscent of an artistic stipple or pointillist
painting, with lots of small, distinct dots coming together to create a
striking larger-scale view.
The colours within this image provide
information about the temperature of the dust mixed with the gas
throughout the galaxy. The slight green tint stretching towards the left
of the frame and the red hue of the main body of the galaxy are from
the Herschel observations, which highlight cold material, down to a
chilly –260 degrees Celsius .
The brighter patches of blue were
captured by Spitzer. These regions are made up of ‘warmer’ —about –150
degrees Celsius — gas and dust, and within some of these areas new stars
are being born. These newborn stars in turn warm up their surroundings,
resulting in intense clumps of heated gas and dust within the galaxy.
These
clumps show up brightly in this image, tracing the shape of the galaxy
clearly — the SMC is made up of a central ‘bar’ of star formation,
visible on the right hand side, and then a more extended ‘wing’,
stretching out towards the left of the frame.
Overall, the Small
Magellanic Cloud is about 1/20th of the size of the Milky Way. It can be
seen shining in the night sky of the southern hemisphere, and its
brightest regions are easily visible to the naked eye. It is a satellite
galaxy of our own — it orbits around the Milky Way along with its
bigger companion, the Large Magellanic Cloud. These two galaxies have
been extensively studied because of their proximity to us; astronomers
can observe them relatively easily to explore how star formation and
galactic evolution works in galaxies other than our own.
The data
in this image are from Herschel’s Spectral and Photometric Imaging
Receiver (SPIRE), Photodetector Array Camera and Spectrometer (PACS),
and Spitzer’s Multiband Imaging Photometer (MIPS).
This image was previously published by NASA/JPL.
Source: ESA
