HUBBLE SPOTS SPIRALING STARS
Astronomers found young stars spiraling into the center of a huge, oddly shaped stellar nursery called NGC 346.
A spiral is the most efficient way to feed star formation from the outside toward the center.
NGC 346 sits in the Small Magellanic Cloud (SMC), a satellite galaxy of the Milky Way, located 169,000 light-years away.
The SMC has a similar chemical composition to galaxies found in the younger universe, when heavier elements were more scarce.
Because of this, the stars in the SMC burn hotter and run out of fuel quickly.
SMC star formation provides insight into how a firestorm of star birth may have created a “baby boom” in the early universe.
Extraordinarily precise observations were possible only because of Hubble’s high resolution and sensitivity.
Hubble’s three decades of observations provides a baseline for astronomers to follow celestial motions over time.
Observing long-term changes like this advances our understanding of star formation and other mysteries of the universe.
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