Wide-field View of The Jewel Box Star Cluster: NGC 4755 | ESO

Wide-field View of The Jewel Box Star Cluster: NGC 4755 | ESO

This image of the well-known NGC 4755 open star cluster or Jewel Box was taken with the Wide Field Imager (WFI) on the Max Planck Institute for Astronomy-ESO 2.2-meter telescope at the European Southern Observatory's La Silla Observatory. It highlights the cluster and its rich surroundings in all their multicolored glory. 

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 field of view is 20 arcminutes across. The picture is based on images obtained through B, V and I filters.

Credit: European Southern Observatory (ESO)

Release Date: Oct. 29, 2009

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