Hubble Captures Stunning Star Cluster in LMC

The NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope has captured a stunning image of a star cluster in the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC), a dwarf galaxy about 160,000 light-years away. This image showcases the nebula LMC N44C, highlighting bright, young stars illuminating gas clouds and sculpting dust with ultraviolet radiation. The LMC, orbiting the Milky Way, is home to massive stellar nurseries, including the N11 region, the galaxy's second-largest star-forming area.

Hubble's image combines observations taken 20 years apart, demonstrating the telescope's longevity. The first observations, made in 2002-2003 with the Advanced Camera for Surveys, aimed to catalog stars in the N11 cluster. The latest observations, using the Wide Field Camera 3, focus on the dusty clouds within the cluster, offering new insights into cosmic dust.