There are nearly 10,000 stars in this image of part of the Large Magellanic Cloud, spanning a region of space about 130 light years across. Over half of them belong to a cluster called NGC 1850, which is estimated to be 50 million years old. They appear predominantly yellowish. A scattering of white stars in the image are massive stars only about 4 million years old. Besides being much younger, the white stars are grouped much more loosely than the yellow ones. They account for a further twenty percent of the stars seen in this picture. The rest are so-called `field stars' - stars that just happen to lie in the line of sight but do not belong to either of the clusters.
The significant age difference between the `white' and `yellow' clusters suggests that they are two completely separate clusters that just happen to lie along the same line of sight. The `white' cluster probably lies about 200 light years beyond the other one. If it were in the foreground, dust within this young cluster would obscure the stars of the other cluster.
It is unusual to observe two such different populations of stars so close to each other in space. It suggests that a supernova explosion in the older cluster might have triggered the birth of the younger stars.
The Large Magellanic Cloud is a small galaxy neighboring the Milky Way at a distance of 169,000 light years. It is visible to the naked eye in the southern constellation Doradus.
Camera: WFPC2
Technical Information: Composite image assembled from exposures taken in ultraviolet, visible and near-infrared light. This image is artistically enhanced.
Credit: R. Gilmozzi (STScI and ESA), S. Ewald (JPL), and NASA
