NGC 4755: The 'Jewel Box' Star Cluster Close-up | Hubble Space Telescope

NGC 4755: The 'Jewel Box' Star Cluster Close-up | Hubble Space Telescope

This image is a "close-up' view from the NASA/European Space Agency Hubble Space Telescope of NGC 4755, or the Jewel Box cluster. Several very bright, pale blue supergiant stars, a solitary ruby-red supergiant and a variety of other brilliantly colored stars are visible in the image, as well as many much fainter ones, often with intriguing colors. The huge variety in brightness exists because the brighter stars are 15 to 20 times the mass of the Sun, while the dimmest stars are less than half the mass of the Sun. This is the first image of an open galactic cluster with imaging extending from the far ultraviolet to the near-infrared.

Distance: 6,500 light years

Credit: NASA/European Space Agency and Jesús Maíz Apellániz (Instituto de Astrofísica de Andalucía, Spain)

Release Date: Oct. 29, 2009

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