Star-forming region in nebula NGC 346 NGC 346 is a star-forming
region about 200 light-years across, found among the clusters
and nebulae of the Small Magellanic Cloud, pictured here by the
NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope. The Small Magellanic Cloud
(SMC) is a satellite galaxy of the Milky Way, visible to the
naked eye in the southern constellation Tucana, and located 210
000 light-years away. Here, Hubble astronomers have uncovered,
for the first time, a population of infant stars. Embedded in
the nebula NGC 346, these infant stars are still forming from
gravitationally collapsing gas clouds. They have not yet ignited
their hydrogen fuel to sustain nuclear fusion. The smallest of
these infant stars is only half the mass of our Sun. Although
star birth is common within the disk of our galaxy, this smaller
companion galaxy is more primeval in that it lacks a large
percentage of the heavier elements that are forged in successive
generations of stars through nuclear fusion. Dwarf galaxies like
the SMC are consid