APOD: 2026 April 13 – NGC 602 and Beyond

Discover the cosmos!
Each day a different image or photograph of our fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation written by a professional astronomer.

2026 April 13

NGC 602 and Beyond
Image Credit:
NASA,
ESA,
and the Hubble Heritage
Team (STScI/AURA) –
ESA/Hubble Collaboration

Explanation:
The clouds may look like an oyster, and the stars like pearls, but look beyond.

Near the outskirts of the
Small Magellanic Cloud,
a satellite galaxy some 200 thousand light-years distant,
lies 5 million year young star cluster
NGC 602.

Surrounded by natal gas and dust,
NGC 602 is featured in this
stunning Hubble image of the region.

Fantastic ridges and swept
back shapes strongly suggest that
energetic radiation and shock waves from
NGC 602‘s
massive young stars have eroded the
dusty material
and triggered a progression of
star formation moving away from the cluster’s center.

At the estimated distance of the
Small Magellanic Cloud,
the featured picture spans about 200 light-years, but
a tantalizing assortment of background galaxies are also visible in
this sharp
multi-colored view.

The background galaxies are hundreds of
millions of
light-years or more
beyond NGC 602.

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