Young Stars of NGC 346
The massive stars of NGC 346 are short lived, but very energetic . The star cluster is embedded in the largest star forming region in the Small Magellanic Cloud , some 210,000 light-years distant. Their winds and radiation sweep out an interstellar cavern in the gas and dust cloud about 200 light-years across, triggering star formation and sculpting the region's dense inner edge. Cataloged as N66, the star forming region also appears to contain a large population of infant stars . A mere 3 to 5 million years old and not yet burning hydrogen in their cores,the infant stars are strewn about the embedded star cluster. In the above false-color Hubble Space Telescope image , visible and near- infrared light are seen as blue and green, while light from atomic hydrogen emission is red.