Small Magellanic Cloud

NGC 292 - Small Magellanic Cloud

The Small Magellanic Cloud (SMC) is a dwarf irregular galaxy and a satellite of the Milky Way, located approximately 200,000 light-years from Earth. It spans about 18,900 light-years in diameter and contains several hundred million stars, with a total mass of roughly 7 billion solar masses. The SMC is visible to the naked eye in the Southern Hemisphere, appearing as a faint, hazy patch in the constellations Tucana and Hydrus.

The SMC features a central bar structure, suggesting it may have once been a barred spiral galaxy before being gravitationally disrupted by interactions with the Milky Way and the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC). It has a low-metallicity, gas-rich interstellar medium, making it an ideal laboratory for studying star formation. A bridge of gas connects it to the LMC, evidence of ongoing tidal interaction. Recent studies suggest the SMC may actually consist of two distinct star-forming regions, separated by about 16,000 light-years, possibly remnants of separate galaxies.

Captured on the Vaonis Vespera II, across a two week period, with 47 hours of observation time using a dual band filter. Edited in PixInsight.