|
Credit & Copyright: E. Olszewski
(U. Arizona)
Explanation:
Jewels don't shine this bright -- only stars do.
Like gems in a jewel box, though, the stars of
open cluster
NGC 290 glitter in a
beautiful display of brightness and color.
The photogenic cluster,
pictured above, was captured recently by the orbiting
Hubble Space Telescope.
Open clusters of stars are younger, contain few stars,
and contain a much higher fraction of blue stars than do
globular clusters of stars.
NGC 290 lies about 200,000
light-years
distant in a neighboring galaxy called the
Small Cloud of Magellan (SMC).
The open cluster contains hundreds of stars
and spans about 65 light years across.
NGC 290 and other open clusters are good laboratories for studying how
stars of different masses
evolve,
since all the open cluster's stars were born at about the same time.
|
January February March April May June July August September October November December |
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
NASA Web Site Statements, Warnings, and Disclaimers
NASA Official: Jay Norris. Specific rights apply.
A service of: LHEA at NASA / GSFC
& Michigan Tech. U.
Based on Astronomy Picture
Of the Day
Publications with keywords: open cluster - stars
Publications with words: open cluster - stars
See also:
- APOD: 2025 August 28 Á Galaxies, Stars, and Dust
- APOD: 2025 August 7 Á The Double Cluster in Perseus
- APOD: 2025 April 28 Á Gum 37 and the Southern Tadpoles
- Open Star Clusters M35 and NGC 2158
- APOD: 2025 February 25 Á M41: The Little Beehive Star Cluster
- APOD: 2025 February 11 Á The Spider and the Fly
- APOD: 2024 October 29 Á NGC 602: Stars Versus Pillars from Webb