NGC 346, the brightest star-forming region in the neighbouring Small Magellanic Cloud (SMC) galaxy, some 210,000 light-years away from Earth. The light, wind and heat given off by massive stars have dispersed the glowing gas within and around this star cluster, forming a surrounding wispy nebular structure that looks like a cobweb. NGC 346 is located in the constellation Tucana and spans approximately 200 light-years.
Find a Hubble image here.
Find an ESO 2.2m image here.
Image data:
Ha-OIII-RGB (240-160-100-100-100 min) total 11,7 h, north is up, seeing 0.8-1.3 arc-sec
80cm f/7 Astrooptik Keller cassegrain, FLI PL 16803, Baader filters, Prompt 7 CTIO Chile
Processing: Johannes Schedler
Find the full frame image in 25/70% size below
Find a central crop image in 50/100% size below
Find a labeled version below (Courtesy Sakib Rasool)