Hubble Finds Infant Stars in Neighboring Galaxy
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Astronomers using NASA's Hubble Space Telescope have
uncovered for the first time a population of embryonic stars
in the Small Magellanic Cloud, a companion galaxy of our
Milky Way. Hubble's exquisite sharpness plucked out an
underlying population of embryonic stars embedded in the
nebula NGC 346 that 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.
Volta