Hubble Captures Jewel-Like Image of Small Magellanic Cloud (SMC), a Dwarf Galaxy 200,000 Light-Years Away

NASA / ESA’s Hubble Space Telescope captures a jewel-like image of the Small Magellanic Cloud (SMC), a dwarf galaxy located 200,000 light-years from Earth. Due to its proximity to our own planet, it’s one of only a few galaxies that can be seen without the use of telescope or binoculars.

The image you see here was captured using Hubble’s Wide Field Camera 3 and its four different filters. Each one of these filters boast different wavelengths of light, thus creating a multicolored view of dust clouds drifting across a field of stars. Hubble provides a much more zoomed-in view than what our eyes can perceive, making it better to observe very distant objects. With that said, this image captures just a tiny region of the SMC near the center of NGC 346, a star cluster that is home to dozens of massive young stars.

Did you know that SMC (and its larger counterpart, the LMC) is actually named after the explorer Ferdinand Magellan? That’s right, his crew observed these “clouds” during their circumnavigation of the globe in the 16th century. However, Indigenous peoples in the Southern Hemisphere, such as the Aboriginal Australians, had observed and incorporated them into their stories long before.