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Explanation: The Pleiades star cluster is one of the jewels of the northern sky. To the unaided eye it appears as a lovely and tantalizing grouping of stars in the constellation of Taurus, while telescopic views reveal cluster stars surrounded by delicate blue wisps of dust-reflected starlight. To the X-ray telescopes on board the orbiting ROSAT observatory, the cluster also presents an impressive, but slightly altered, appearance. This false color image was produced from ROSAT observations by translating different X-ray energy bands to visual colors - the lowest energies are shown in red, medium in green, and highest energies in blue. (The green boxes mark the position of the seven brightest visual stars.) The Pleiades stars seen in X-rays have extremely hot, tenuous outer atmospheres called coronas and the range of colors corresponds to different coronal temperatures.
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NASA Official: Jay Norris. Specific rights apply.
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& Michigan Tech. U.
Based on Astronomy Picture
Of the Day
Publications with keywords: pleiades - open cluster
Publications with words: pleiades - open cluster
See also:
- APOD: 2024 December 9 Á Pleiades: The Seven Sisters Star Cluster
- APOD: 2024 October 29 Á NGC 602: Stars Versus Pillars from Webb
- APOD: 2024 September 29 Á Seven Dusty Sisters
- APOD: 2024 September 3 Á Quarter Moon and Sister Stars
- NGC 7789: Caroline s Rose
- APOD: 2024 July 2 Á NGC 602: Oyster Star Cluster
- The 37 Cluster