NASA shares magnificent picture of 5 million years young star cluster named 'NGC 602'

NASA shared an image of "5 million years young and dazzling star cluster" on its official Instagram account on January 16. The US space agency shared the image with a caption stating that the colour of a star is directly linked to its surface temperature. NASA said that the hotter the star, the shorter the wavelength of light it will emit. "The hottest of stars are blue or blue-white and the cooler ones are red or red-brown," it added. 

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'Young and dazzling star cluster'

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The caption of the image of the cluster of stars shared by NASA read, "How blue-tiful! Near the outskirts of the Small Magellanic Cloud, a satellite galaxy about 200 thousand light-years away, lies this 5 million years young and dazzling star cluster is known as NGC 602. Inside the star cluster, bright, blue, newly formed stars are blowing a cavity in this nebula, sculpting the inner edge of its outer portions, slowly eroding it away and eating into the material beyond."

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NASA shares stunning image of spiral galaxy

Earlier on January 15, NASA shared a spellbinding photograph of the cosmos barred spiral galaxy, known for its central bar-shaped structure which is composed of a myriad of stars. Taking to its official Instagram handle, the space agency wrote, “At a distance of 67 million light-years away, NGC 613 is a stunning example of a barred spiral galaxy. It’s easy to distinguish the galaxy as such because of its well-defined central bar and long arms, which spiral loosely around the nucleus.” 

According to NASA, NGC 613 galaxy was first discovered in 1798 by German-English astronomer William Herschel. The galaxy was observed by amateur astronomer Victor Buso while he was testing a new camera on a telescope in 2016. A curious spot of light caught his eye which was originating out of a supernova in the southern constellation of Sculptor 67 million light-years away with two stellar nuclei that were emitted apart by a stream of dust. Later observed by NASA and ESA Hubble Space Telescope, NGC 613 was dubbed as barred galaxy by the astronomers owing to its well-defined central bar and long arms that radiated out of the nucleus. 

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