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Stellar nurseries · evidence and sources

NGC 602

Young stars sculpt a luminous cavity in the wing of the Small Magellanic Cloud.

Also known as N90, NGC 602 / N90.

Catalog Position basis, the same label the app shows on the selection card.

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Every aspect, with its origin

One record per aspect. The origin says what kind of thing each value is; the source says where it came from; the limit says what it cannot tell you.

ObservedCatalogComputedReconstructedIllustrativeUndocumented
Position Catalog

Registered image field

J2000 image-field center RA 1.5 h, Dec -73.6°. Field 3.1 × 3.1 arcminutes; north -90° right of vertical.

SourceHubble ACS
EpochJ2000
LimitThe image field center is not necessarily a galaxy nucleus.
Physical data Catalog

Adopted distance

Approximately 200,000 light-years.

SourcePublished distance context
LimitAn approximate reference distance; distances to individual points within the image are not supplied by the observation.
Appearance Reconstructed

Observation-derived appearance

This Hubble optical and near-infrared field shows NGC 602 in the wing of the Small Magellanic Cloud. It records projected light, not individual stellar distances. Projected structure follows the credited observation at its published angular scale and an approximate adopted distance. Shallow depth is illustrative, not measured tomography. The source palette is preserved; brightness is adjusted for the navigable view.

SourceNASA , ESA and the Hubble Heritage Team ( STScI / AURA )- ESA / Hubble Collaboration
Appearance Reconstructed

Live telescope view: Webb NIRCam + MIRI

Compare the Hubble cluster with infrared structure in the surrounding cloud, where young objects remain embedded in dust. Publisher release: 23 October 2024; this is not the observing epoch.

SourceESA/Webb, NASA & CSA, P. Zeidler, E. Sabbi, A. Nota, M. Zamani (ESA/Webb)
MethodPublisher AVM tangent-plane coordinates, resampled to the original destination field; approximate display registration.
LimitThis observation covers approximately 85% of the destination’s rectangular source field. Outside its footprint, the original observation remains visible. Field edges and detector gaps are not physical boundaries. Source palettes are display colors; shallow scene depth is illustrative, not measured tomography.

What is not measured

  • Appearance: a reconstruction from measurements, not a direct observation. Observation-derived appearance. This Hubble optical and near-infrared field shows NGC 602 in the wing of the Small Magellanic Cloud. It records projected light, not individual stellar distances. Projected structure follows the credited observation at its published angular scale and an approximate adopted distance. Shallow depth is illustrative, not measured tomography. The source palette is preserved; brightness is adjusted for the navigable view.
  • Appearance: a reconstruction from measurements, not a direct observation. Live telescope view: Webb NIRCam + MIRI. This observation covers approximately 85% of the destination’s rectangular source field. Outside its footprint, the original observation remains visible. Field edges and detector gaps are not physical boundaries. Source palettes are display colors; shallow scene depth is illustrative, not measured tomography.

Sources cited

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