NGC 292, or the Small Magellanic Cloud (SMC) is the smaller of the two ‘Nubeculas’ first sighted by Ferdinand Magellan during his circumnavigation around the globe at the beginning of the sixteenth century. At a distance of "merely" 210,000 light-years away in the constellation Tucana, the SMC is tidally distorted by both the LMC and our own Milky Way. It actually spans 15,000 light-years or so and contains several hundred million stars. Despite being often overlooked due to the smaller size and brightness compared to the Large Magellanic cloud, the SMC is very rich of objects to see. The large blue patch in the top right of the image is clusters and nebulae NGC 346, a a star forming region about 200 light-years across, as big as the Eta Carinae Nebula. Exploring NGC 346, astronomers have identified a population of embryonic stars strung along the dark, intersecting dust lanes visible here on the right. Still collapsing within their natal clouds, the stellar infants' light is reddened by the intervening dust. Under this giant nebula, close the center of the image lay Henize N36 and N37, a pair of emission nebulae fairly bright. Al bottom left in the picture above there is a group of objects known as "the Magnificent Seven", in fact NGC 249–261–267, Dem 132 and N 25–28–30. Apo TEC140 (140/f7.2) - FLI Proline 16803 - - Mosaic of two panels - Ha (750m) OIII(840m) L (410m) R (240m) G (270m) B (280m) - Warrumbungle Observatory, Coonabarabran, NSW, Australia
In 185 AD, Chinese astronomers recorded the appearance of a new star in the Nanmen asterism - a part of the sky identified with Alpha and Beta Centauri on modern star charts. The new star was visible for months and is thought to be the earliest recorded supernova. The gaseous shell RCW 86 is probably the supernova remnant of this event and has a relatively large angular size of roughly 45 arc minutes (larger than the apparent size of the full moon). The distance to RCW 86 is estimated to be 9,100 light-years. Recent X-ray studies show a good match for the expected age. New infrared observations from NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope and Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE) reveal how the supernova occurred and how its shattered remains ultimately spread out to great distances. The findings show that the stellar explosion took place in a hollowed-out cavity, allowing material expelled by the star to travel much faster and farther than it would have otherwise (text adapted from Wikipedia). Apo TEC140 (140/f7.2) - FLI Proline 16803 - Ha (1020m) OIII (490m) R (90m) G (90m) B (90m) - Warrumbungle Observatory, Coonabarabran, NSW, Australia
NGC 292, or the Small Magellanic Cloud (SMC) is the smaller of the two ‘Nubeculas’ first sighted by Ferdinand Magellan during his circumnavigation around the globe at the beginning of the sixteenth century. At a distance of "merely" 210,000 light-years away in the constellation Tucana, the SMC is tidally distorted by both the LMC and our own Milky Way. It actually spans 15,000 light-years or so and contains several hundred million stars. Despite being often overlooked due to the smaller size and brightness compared to the Large Magellanic cloud, the SMC is very rich of objects to see. The large blue patch in the top centre of the image is clusters and nebulae NGC 346, a a star forming region about 200 light-years across, as big as the Eta Carinae Nebula. Exploring NGC 346, astronomers have identified a population of embryonic stars strung along the dark, intersecting dust lanes visible here on the right. Still collapsing within their natal clouds, the stellar infants' light is reddened by the intervening dust. Under this giant nebula, close the center of the image lay Henize N36 and N37, a pair of emission nebulae fairly bright. Lower right in the picture above there is a group of objects known as "the Magnificent Seven", in fact NGC 249–261–267, Dem 132 and N 25–28–30. Apo TEC140 (140/f7.2) - FLI Proline 16803 - Ha (390m) OIII(390m) L (230m) R (120m) G (150m) B (160m) - Warrumbungle Observatory, Coonabarabran, NSW, Australia
