NGC 7789: Galactic Star Cluster
9.07.1999

At 1.6 billion years old, this cluster of stars is beginning to show its age. NGC 7789 is an open or galactic star cluster about 8,000 light-years distant toward the constellation Cassiopeia and lies near the plane of our Milky Way galaxy.

NGC 6712: Galactic Globular Cluster
24.02.1999

Following orbits which loop high above the galactic plane, globular star clusters are probably 12 to 14 billion years old - truly ancient denizens of our Milky Way Galaxy. After analyzing these new ESO/VLT images...

A Galactic Collision in Cluster Abell 1185
21.11.2005

What is a guitar doing in a cluster of galaxies? Colliding. Clusters of galaxies are sometimes packed so tight that the galaxies that compose them collide. A prominent example occurs on the left of the above image of the rich cluster of galaxies Abell 1185.

Galactic Center Star Clusters
10.08.2006

If you had x-ray vision, the central regions of our Galaxy would not be hidden from view by cosmic dust clouds. Instead, the Milky Way toward Sagittarius might look something like this. Pleasing...

Three Clusters in Puppis
17.02.2022

Galactic or open star clusters are young. The swarms of stars are born together near the plane of the Milky Way, but their numbers steadily dwindle as cluster members are ejected by galactic tides and gravitational interactions.

Wild Duck Open Cluster M11
15.01.1996

Many stars like our Sun were formed in open clusters. The above open cluster, M11, contains thousands of stars and is just over three thousand light years distant. The stars in this cluster all formed together about 150 million years ago. The many bright stars in the cluster appear blue.

Wild Duck Open Cluster M11
22.10.2000

Many stars like our Sun were formed in open clusters. The above open cluster, M11, contains thousands of stars and is just over three thousand light years distant. The stars in this cluster all formed together about 150 million years ago. The bright young stars in M11 appear blue.

M11: The Wild Duck Cluster
21.01.2003

Many stars like our Sun were formed in open clusters. The above pictured open cluster, M11, contains thousands of stars and is just over five thousand light years distant. The stars in this cluster all formed together about 250 million years ago. The bright young stars in M11 appear blue.

Open Cluster M25
31.08.2009

Many stars like our Sun were formed in open clusters. The above pictured open cluster, M25, contains thousands of stars and is about two thousand light years distant. The stars in this cluster all formed together about 90 million years ago. The bright young stars in M25 appear blue.

M39: Open Cluster in Cygnus
31.03.2004

Lying just at the limit of human perception is a picturesque starfield containing one of the larger open clusters on the northern sky. Spanning an angle larger than the Moon, M39's relatively few stars lie only about 800 light years distant toward the constellation of Cygnus.