Astronomy Picture of the Day
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2014 June 8
Open Cluster NGC 290: A Stellar Jewel Box
Image Credit:
ESA &
NASA;
Acknowledgement:
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.
Best space images:
Free APOD Lecture in Paris on June 17
Tomorrow's picture: a light unknown
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MTU) &
Jerry Bonnell (
UMCP)
NASA Official: Phillip Newman
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