NGC 602 is a young stellar cluster located in a peripheral region of the Small Magellanic Cloud known as the wing .
Far from the main body of the galaxy and abutting the Magellanic Bridge , the SMC ’ s wing is characterized by low gas and stellar content .
With deep optical imaging from the Advanced Camera for Surveys ( ACS ) aboard the Hubble Space Telescope ( HST ) , we have discovered an extensive pre-Main Sequence ( PMS ) population , with stellar masses in the range 0.6–3 M _ { \sun } .
These low mass PMS stars formed coevally with the central cluster about 4 Myr ago .
Spitzer Space Telescope ( Spitzer ) images of the same region from the Infrared Array Camera ( IRAC ) also reveal a population of Young Stellar Objects ( YSOs ) , some of which are still embedded in nebular material and most of which likely formed even more recently than the young stars detected with HST/ACS imaging .
We infer that star formation started in this region \sim 4 Myr ago with the formation of the central cluster and gradually propagated towards the outskirts where star formation is presently ongoing .