The Jewel Box Star Cluster: NGC 4755 | European Southern Observatory

The Jewel Box Star Cluster: NGC 4755 | European Southern Observatory

The FORS1 instrument on the European Southern Observatory's Very Large Telescope (VLT) at its Paranal Observatory was used to take this exquisitely sharp close up view of the colorful Jewel Box cluster, NGC 4755.

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.

Distance: 6,500 light years

The Very Large Telescope's huge mirror allowed very short exposure times—just 2.6 seconds through a blue filter, 1.3 seconds through a yellow/green filter and 1.3 seconds through a red filter. The field of view spans about seven arcminutes.

Credit: European Southern Observatory (ESO)

Release Date: Oct. 29, 2009

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