Open star cluster NGC 299 is located within the Small Magellanic Cloud just under 200,000 light-years away in the southern constellation of Tucana (The Toucan). Open clusters such as this are collections of stars weakly bound by the confines of gravity, all of which formed from the same massive molecular cloud of gas and dust. Because of this, all the stars have the same age and composition, but vary in their mass because they formed at different positions within the cloud.