Globular Star Cluster Messier 5 in Serpens Caput: Surprising 'Vitality' | Hubble

Globular Star Cluster Messier 5 in Serpens Caput: Surprising 'Vitality' | Hubble

The globular cluster Messier 5, shown here in this NASA/European Space Agency Hubble Space Telescope image, is one of the oldest belonging to the Milky Way galaxy. The majority of its stars formed more than 12 billion years ago, but there are unexpected newcomers on the scene, adding vitality to this aging population.

Stars in globular clusters form in the same stellar nursery and grow old together. The most massive stars age quickly, exhausting their fuel supply in less than a million years, and end their lives in spectacular supernovae explosions. This process should have left the ancient cluster Messier 5 with only old, low-mass stars. These stars have aged and cooled and have become red giants, while the oldest stars have evolved even further into blue horizontal branch stars.

Yet astronomers have spotted many young, blue stars in this cluster, hiding amongst the much more luminous ancient ones. Astronomers think that these laggard youngsters, called blue stragglers, were created either by stellar collisions or by the transfer of mass between binary stars. Such events are easy to imagine in densely populated globular clusters where a few million stars are tightly packed together.

Messier 5 lies at a distance of about 25,000 light-years in the constellation of Serpens (The Snake). This image was taken with the Wide Field Channel of Hubble’s Advanced Camera for Surveys. The picture was created from images taken through a blue filter (F435W, colored blue), a red filter (F625W, colored green) and a near-infrared filter (F814W, colored red). The total exposure times per filter were 750 s, 400 s and 567 s, respectively. The field of view is about 2.6 arcminutes across.

Credit: ESA/Hubble & NASA 

Release Date: May 2, 2011

#NASA #Hubble #Astronomy #Space #Science #Stars #BlueStars #RedGiants #StarClusters #GlobularClusters #Messier5 #M5 #SerpensCaput #Constellation #MilkyWayGalaxy #Cosmos #Universe #HST #SpaceTelescope #ESA #Europe #GSFC #STScI #UnitedStates #STEM #Education

Comet C/2023 A3 over California's Sierra Mountains with M5 Star Cluster

Comet C/2023 A3 over California's Sierra Mountains with M5 Star Cluster

The tails of Comet Tsuchinshan-ATLAS were a sight to behold. Pictured, C/2023 A3 (Tsuchinshan–ATLAS) was captured near peak impressiveness last week over the Eastern Sierra Mountains in California, USA. The comet had a bright tail, along with a distinct anti-tail pointing in nearly the opposite direction. The globular star cluster M5 can be seen on the right, far in the distance. As it approached the sun, it was unclear if this comet, a crumbling iceberg, would disintegrate completely as it warmed in the bright sunlight. In reality, the comet survived to become brighter than any star in the night (magnitude -4.9), but unfortunately was then so nearly in front of the Sun that it was hard for many casual observers to locate. Whether Comet Tsuchinshan-Atlas becomes known as the Great Comet of 2024 now depends, in part, on how impressive incoming comet C/2024 S1 (ATLAS) becomes over the next two weeks.

C/2023 A3 (Tsuchinshan–ATLAS) is a comet from the solar system's Oort cloud discovered by the Purple Mountain Observatory east of Nanjing, China, on January 9, 2023, and independently found by the automated Asteroid Terrestrial-impact Last Alert System (ATLAS) in South Africa on February 22, 2023. ATLAS is funded by NASA's planetary defense office, and developed and operated by the University of Hawaii's Institute for Astronomy. C/2023 A3 passed perihelion (closest approach to the Sun) at a distance of 0.39 AU (58 million km; 36 million miles) on September 27, 2024.

The Oort cloud is theorized to be a vast cloud of icy planetesimals surrounding the Sun at distances ranging from 2,000 to 200,000 AU (0.03 to 3.2 light-years). The concept of such a cloud was proposed in 1950 by the Dutch astronomer Jan Oort, in whose honor the idea was named. Oort proposed that the bodies in this cloud replenish and keep constant the number of long-period comets entering the inner Solar System—where they are eventually consumed and destroyed during close approaches to the Sun.

Credit & Copyright: Brian Fulda
Brian's website: https://www.brianfulda.com/about

Release Date: Oct. 21, 2024

#NASA #Space #Astronomy #Science #SolarSystem #Planet #Earth #SierraMountains #California #UnitedStates #Comets #CometTsuchinshanATLAS #C2023A3 #AntiTail #OortCloud #SolarSystem #Starclusters #StarClusterM5 #Messier5 #Astrophotography #BrianFulda #Astrophotographer #China #中国 #SouthAfrica #STEM #Education #APoD

Un archipiélago galáctico en un mar de materia oscura | NOIRLab en español

Un archipiélago galáctico en un mar de materia oscura | NOIRLab en español

Cosmoview Episodio 88: NGC 1270 es sólo un miembro más de los que hay en el Cúmulo de Perseo, un grupo de miles de galaxias ubicadas a unos 240 millones de años luz de la Tierra en la constelación de Perseo. Esta imagen fue tomada con el Espectrógrafo Multi-Objeto de Gemini (GMOS, por sus siglas en inglés) en el telescopio de Gemini Norte, la mitad boreal del Observatorio Internacional Gemini que es financiado en parte por la Fundación Nacional de Ciencia de Estados Unidos y operada por NOIRLab de NSF. La fotografía captura una deslumbrante colección de galaxias en la región central de este enorme cúmulo.

Credit: Observatorio Internacional Gemini/NOIRLab/NSF/AURA/

Procesamiento de imágenes: J. Miller & M. Rodriguez (International Gemini Observatory/NSF NOIRLab), T.A. Rector (University of Alaska Anchorage/NSF NOIRLab), M. Zamani (NSF NOIRLab)

Acknowledgements: PI: Jisu Kang (Seoul National University)

Duration: 1 minute, 22 seconds

Release Date: Oct. 21, 2024

#NASA #Astronomy #Space #Science #español #Galaxies #Galaxy #NGC1270 #Perseus #Constellation #PerseusCluster #GalaxyCluster #DarkMatter #Cosmos #Universe #InternationalGeminiObservatory #GeminiNorthTelescope #GMOS #Optical #NOIRLab #AURA #NSF #Maunakea #Hawaii #UnitedStates #STEM #Education #HD #Video

Galaxy NGC 1270 in Perseus Entangled in a Web of Dark Matter | Gemini North

Galaxy NGC 1270 in Perseus Entangled in a Web of Dark Matter | Gemini North

Cosmoview Episode 88: NGC 1270 is just one member of the Perseus Cluster, a group of thousands of galaxies that lies around 240 million light-years from Earth in the constellation Perseus. This image shows a dazzling collection of galaxies in the central region of this enormous cluster. It was taken with the Gemini Multi-Object Spectrograph (GMOS) on the Gemini North telescope, one half of the International Gemini Observatory. It is supported in part by the U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF) and operated by NSF's NOIRLab.

Since 2002 Gemini North has also been known as the Frederick C. Gillett Gemini North telescope. Dr. Gillett, who died in April 2001, was one of the primary visionaries of the Gemini telescopes. He was instrumental in assuring that the design of Gemini's twin 8-meter telescopes would make major scientific contributions to astronomy.

Learn more here: https://www.gemini.edu

Credit: International Gemini Observatory / NOIRLab / NSF / AURA / N. Bartmann (NSF NOIRLab)/J. Pollard/NASA/ESA/F. Summers (STScl)
Image Processing: J. Miller & M. Rodriguez (International Gemini Observatory/NSF NOIRLab), T.A. Rector (University of Alaska Anchorage/NSF NOIRLab), M. Zamani (NSF NOIRLab)
Acknowledgements: PI: Jisu Kang (Seoul National University)

Duration: 1 minute, 22 seconds
Release Date: Oct. 21, 2024

#NASA #Astronomy #Space #Science #Galaxies #Galaxy #NGC1270 #Perseus #Constellation #PerseusCluster #GalaxyCluster #DarkMatter #Cosmos #Universe #InternationalGeminiObservatory #GeminiNorthTelescope #GMOS #Optical #NOIRLab #AURA #NSF #Maunakea #Hawaii #UnitedStates #STEM #Education #HD #Video

Journey to Galaxy NGC 1270 in The Perseus Galaxy Cluster

Journey to Galaxy NGC 1270 in The Perseus Galaxy Cluster

NGC 1270 is just one member of the Perseus Cluster, a group of thousands of galaxies that lies around 240 million light-years from Earth in the constellation Perseus. This image shows a dazzling collection of galaxies in the central region of this enormous cluster. It was taken with the Gemini Multi-Object Spectrograph (GMOS) on the Gemini North telescope, one half of the International Gemini Observatory. It is supported in part by the U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF) and operated by NSF's NOIRLab.

Since 2002 Gemini North has also been known as the Frederick C. Gillett Gemini North telescope. Dr. Gillett, who died in April 2001, was one of the primary visionaries of the Gemini telescopes. He was instrumental in assuring that the design of Gemini's twin 8-meter telescopes would make major scientific contributions to astronomy.

Learn more here: https://www.gemini.edu

Credit: International Gemini Observatory / NOIRLab / NSF / AURA / N. Bartmann (NSF NOIRLab)
Image Processing: J. Miller & M. Rodriguez (International Gemini Observatory/NSF NOIRLab), T.A. Rector (University of Alaska Anchorage/NSF NOIRLab), M. Zamani (NSF NOIRLab)
Acknowledgements: PI: Jisu Kang (Seoul National University)

Duration: 1 minute
Release Date: Oct. 21, 2024

#NASA #Astronomy #Space #Science #Galaxies #Galaxy #NGC1270 #Perseus #Constellation #PerseusCluster #GalaxyCluster #Cosmos #Universe #InternationalGeminiObservatory #GeminiNorthTelescope #GMOS #Optical #NOIRLab #AURA #NSF #Maunakea #Hawaii #UnitedStates #STEM #Education #HD #Video

Pan of Galaxy NGC 1270 in The Perseus Galaxy Cluster | Gemini North

Pan of Galaxy NGC 1270 in The Perseus Galaxy Cluster | Gemini North

NGC 1270 is just one member of the Perseus Cluster, a group of thousands of galaxies that lies around 240 million light-years from Earth in the constellation Perseus. This image shows a dazzling collection of galaxies in the central region of this enormous cluster. It was taken with the Gemini Multi-Object Spectrograph (GMOS) on the Gemini North telescope, one half of the International Gemini Observatory. It is supported in part by the U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF) and operated by NSF's NOIRLab.

Since 2002 Gemini North has also been known as the Frederick C. Gillett Gemini North telescope. Dr. Gillett, who died in April 2001, was one of the primary visionaries of the Gemini telescopes. He was instrumental in assuring that the design of Gemini's twin 8-meter telescopes would make major scientific contributions to astronomy.

Learn more here: https://www.gemini.edu

Credit: International Gemini Observatory/NOIRLab/NSF/AURA/N. Bartmann (NSF NOIRLab)
Image Processing: J. Miller & M. Rodriguez (International Gemini Observatory/NSF NOIRLab), T.A. Rector (University of Alaska Anchorage/NSF NOIRLab), M. Zamani (NSF NOIRLab)
Acknowledgements: PI: Jisu Kang (Seoul National University)

Duration: 30 seconds
Release Date: Oct. 21, 2024

#NASA #Astronomy #Space #Science #Galaxies #Galaxy #NGC1270 #Perseus #Constellation #PerseusCluster #GalaxyCluster #Cosmos #Universe #InternationalGeminiObservatory #GeminiNorthTelescope #GMOS #Optical #NOIRLab #AURA #NSF #Maunakea #Hawaii #UnitedStates #STEM #Education #HD #Video

Galaxy NGC 1270 in The Perseus Galaxy Cluster | Gemini North Telescope

Galaxy NGC 1270 in The Perseus Galaxy Cluster | Gemini North Telescope

NGC 1270 is just one member of the Perseus Cluster, a group of thousands of galaxies that lies around 240 million light-years from Earth in the constellation Perseus. This image shows a dazzling collection of galaxies in the central region of this enormous cluster. It was taken with the Gemini Multi-Object Spectrograph (GMOS) on the Gemini North telescope, one half of the International Gemini Observatory. It is supported in part by the U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF) and operated by NSF's NOIRLab.

Since 2002 Gemini North has also been known as the Frederick C. Gillett Gemini North telescope. Dr. Gillett, who died in April 2001, was one of the primary visionaries of the Gemini telescopes. He was instrumental in assuring that the design of Gemini's twin 8-meter telescopes would make major scientific contributions to astronomy.

Learn more here: https://www.gemini.edu

Credit: International Gemini Observatory/NOIRLab/NSF/AURA/
Image Processing: J. Miller & M. Rodriguez (International Gemini Observatory/NSF NOIRLab), T.A. Rector (University of Alaska Anchorage/NSF NOIRLab), M. Zamani (NSF NOIRLab)
Acknowledgements: PI: Jisu Kang (Seoul National University)
Release Date: Oct. 21, 2024

#NASA #Astronomy #Space #Science #Galaxies #Galaxy #NGC1270 #Perseus #Constellation #PerseusCluster #GalaxyCluster #Cosmos #Universe #InternationalGeminiObservatory #GeminiNorthTelescope #GMOS #Optical #NOIRLab #AURA #NSF #Maunakea #Hawaii #UnitedStates #STEM #Education

Red Sprite over Central Africa | International Space Station

Red Sprite over Central Africa | International Space Station

NASA astronaut Matthew Dominick: "A red sprite shoots out above a lightning strike over Central Africa."

"I was getting setup to take images of Cairo. On the approach across Africa there was a bunch of lightning. Out of 800 or so images there was a red sprite!"

Red Sprites: These mysterious bursts of light in the upper atmosphere momentarily resemble gigantic jellyfish. One unusual feature of sprites is that they are relatively cold. They operate more like long fluorescent light tubes than hot compact light bulbs. In general, red sprites take only a fraction of a second to occur and are best seen when powerful thunderstorms are visible from the side.

Image details: 50mm, f1.2, 1/10s, ISO 3200, denoised

Expedition 72 Updates: 

https://blogs.nasa.gov/spacestation/

Expedition 72 Crew

Station Commander: Suni Williams
Roscosmos (Russia): Alexander Grebenkin, Alexey Ovchinin, Ivan Vagner, Aleksandr Gorbunov
NASA: Matthew Dominick, Mike Barrett, Jeanette Epps, Butch Wilmore, Don Pettit, Nick Hague

An international partnership of space agencies provides and operates the elements of the International Space Station (ISS). The principals are the space agencies of the United States, Russia, Europe, Japan, and Canada. The ISS has been the most politically complex space exploration program ever undertaken.

Image Credit: NASA's Johnson Space Center (JSC)/Astronaut Matthew Dominick

Release Date: Oct. 20, 2024

#NASA #Space #ISS #Science #Planet #Earth #Atmosphere #Weather #Meteorology #Storms #Lightning #RedSprites #CentralAfrica #Africa #AstronautPhotography #Astronauts #MatthewDominick #UnitedStates #Cosmonauts #Russia #Россия #Roscosmos #Роскосмос #HumanSpaceflight #SpaceLaboratory #InternationalCooperation #Expedition72 #STEM #Education

Comet Tsuchinshan-ATLAS over ESO Supernova Planetarium in Munich, Germany

Comet Tsuchinshan-ATLAS over ESO Supernova Planetarium in Munich, Germany

Earth has a majestic new visitor. Seen last week above the European Southern Observatory (ESO) Supernova Planetarium & Visitor Center, the comet C/2023 A3, also known as Tsuchinshan-ATLAS, comes to us from the distant Oort Cloud—a gigantic cluster of icy objects that envelops the Solar System. As it got closer to the Sun, it heated up and developed tails of dust and gas observed by comet watchers around the world, including at the ESO Headquarters in Munich, Germany. 

The comet was first detected in early 2023 by two independent facilities: the Tsuchinshan observatory in China and a telescope from the Asteroid Terrestrial-impact Last Alert System (ATLAS), located in South Africa. Since then, it has been getting closer, reaching its closest distance to the Sun in September 2024. Its brightness peaked in early October, and the comet is now dimming down as it embarks on a long journey back home.

This object is one of the brightest comets of the last two decades, and it was easily visible to the naked eye. In this time-lapse video, hundreds of frames were taken every few seconds with different cameras and lenses to produce the sped-up video seen here.

C/2023 A3 (Tsuchinshan–ATLAS) is a comet from the solar system's Oort cloud discovered by the Purple Mountain Observatory east of Nanjing, China, on January 9, 2023, and independently found by the automated Asteroid Terrestrial-impact Last Alert System (ATLAS) in South Africa on February 22, 2023. ATLAS is funded by NASA's planetary defense office, and developed and operated by the University of Hawaii's Institute for Astronomy. C/2023 A3 passed perihelion (closest approach to the Sun) at a distance of 0.39 AU (58 million km; 36 million miles) on September 27, 2024.

The Oort cloud is theorized to be a vast cloud of icy planetesimals surrounding the Sun at distances ranging from 2,000 to 200,000 AU (0.03 to 3.2 light-years). The concept of such a cloud was proposed in 1950 by the Dutch astronomer Jan Oort, in whose honor the idea was named. Oort proposed that the bodies in this cloud replenish and keep constant the number of long-period comets entering the inner Solar System—where they are eventually consumed and destroyed during close approaches to the Sun.

Credit: European Southern Observatory (ESO)/L. Calçada, F. Kamphues, J. C. Muñoz-Mateos, B. Speet
Duration: 22 seconds
Release Date: Oct. 21, 2024

#NASA #Space #Astronomy #Science #SolarSystem #Planet #Earth #Munich #München #Germany #Deutschland  #Comets #CometTsuchinshanATLAS #C2023A3 #AntiTail #OortCloud #SolarSystem #Astrophotography #China #中国 #SouthAfrica #STEM #Education #HD #Video

NASA's Artemis II Astronauts 'Get Hands On' with Orion | Lockheed Martin

NASA's Artemis II Astronauts 'Get Hands On' with Orion | Lockheed Martin

Over several visits to our campus in Littleton, Colorado, NASA astronauts Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, Christina Koch and Jeremy Hansen, and their backup crew have been hard at work testing Orion’s crew module hatch.

This is important training that puts hundreds of opening and closing cycles on a hatch to test its durability. With the need to operate the hatch so many times, the training sessions serve as a great opportunity for the crew to train on the many ways the hatch can operate in a variety of situations. 

See how testing is done to simulate real-life mission conditions, and hear firsthand from astronaut Victor Glover about the importance of flight hardware training.

The approximately 10-day Artemis II Mission will be NASA’s first crewed flight test of the Space Launch System (SLS) rocket and Orion spacecraft around the Moon to verify today’s capabilities for humans to explore deep space and pave the way for long-term exploration and science on the lunar surface, including landing the first woman and the first person of color on the Moon.

The Artemis II crew module is now undergoing acoustic testing ahead of integration with the European Service Module (ESM). 

Artemis II will launch no earlier than September 2025.

Learn more about the Artemis II Mission:

https://www.nasa.gov/artemis-ii

Video Credit: Lockheed Martin
Duration: 3 minutes
Release Date: Oct. 21, 2024

#NASA #ESA #CSA #Space #Moon #ArtemisProgram #ArtemisIIMission #ArtemisII #OrionSpacecraft #DeepSpace #Astronauts #VictorGlover #ChristinaKoch #JeremyHansen #ReidWiseman #MoonToMars #Science #SpaceExploration #HumanSpaceflight #LockheedMartin #Littleton #Colorado #UnitedStates #Canada #Europe #STEM #Education #HD #Video

Pan of Spiral Galaxy IC 3225: Celestial 'Cannonball' in Virgo | Hubble

Pan of Spiral Galaxy IC 3225: Celestial 'Cannonball' in Virgo | Hubble

The spiral galaxy appearing in this Hubble picture is named IC 3225. It looks remarkably like it has been launched from a cannon, speeding through space like a comet with a tail of gas streaming from its disc behind it. Appearances can be deceiving with objects so far from Earth—IC 3225 itself is about 100 million light-years away. However, the galaxy’s location suggests causes for this active scene, because IC 3225 is one of over 1,300 members of the Virgo galaxy cluster. The density of galaxies in the Virgo cluster creates a rich field of hot gas between them, the so-called ‘intracluster medium’. The cluster’s extreme mass has galaxies careening around its center in very fast orbits. Ramming through the thick intracluster medium, especially close to the cluster’s center, places an enormous ‘ram pressure’ on the moving galaxies that strips gas from them as they go.

IC 3225 is not so close to the cluster core right now. Nevertheless, astronomers have deduced that it has undergone this ram pressure stripping in the past. The galaxy looks as though it has been impacted by this. It is compressed on one side and there has been noticeably more star formation on this leading edge, while the opposite end is stretched out of shape. Being in such a crowded field, a close call with another galaxy could also have tugged on IC 3225 and created this shape. The sight of this distorted galaxy is a reminder of the forces at work on astronomical scales. It can move and reshape entire galaxies,

Image Description: A spiral galaxy. Its disc glows visibly from the center, and has faint dust threaded through it. A spiral arm curves around the left edge of the disc and is noticeably more dense with bright blue spots, where there are hot and new stars, than the rest. Opposite, the disc stretches out into a short tail where it covers a distant background galaxy. Around it, other distant galaxies and nearby stars are visible.

Credit: ESA/Hubble & NASA, M. Sun

Duration: 30 seconds

Release Date: Oct. 21, 2024

#NASA #Hubble #Astronomy #Space #Science #Galaxies #Galaxy #IC3225 #SpiralGalaxy #Virgo #Constellation #VirgoCluster #GalaxyCluster #RAMPressure #Cosmos #Universe #HubbleSpaceTelescope #HST #ESA #Europe #GSFC #STScI #UnitedStates #STEM #Education #HD #Video

Spiral Galaxy IC 3225: Celestial 'Cannonball' in Virgo | Hubble Space Telescope

Spiral Galaxy IC 3225: Celestial 'Cannonball' in Virgo | Hubble Space Telescope

The spiral galaxy appearing in this Hubble picture is named IC 3225. It looks remarkably like it has been launched from a cannon, speeding through space like a comet with a tail of gas streaming from its disc behind it. Appearances can be deceiving with objects so far from Earth—IC 3225 itself is about 100 million light-years away. However, the galaxy’s location suggests causes for this active scene, because IC 3225 is one of over 1,300 members of the Virgo galaxy cluster. The density of galaxies in the Virgo cluster creates a rich field of hot gas between them, the so-called ‘intracluster medium’. The cluster’s extreme mass has galaxies careening around its center in very fast orbits. Ramming through the thick intracluster medium, especially close to the cluster’s center, places an enormous ‘ram pressure’ on the moving galaxies that strips gas from them as they go.

IC 3225 is not so close to the cluster core right now. Nevertheless, astronomers have deduced that it has undergone this ram pressure stripping in the past. The galaxy looks as though it has been impacted by this. It is compressed on one side and there has been noticeably more star formation on this leading edge, while the opposite end is stretched out of shape. Being in such a crowded field, a close call with another galaxy could also have tugged on IC 3225 and created this shape. The sight of this distorted galaxy is a reminder of the forces at work on astronomical scales. It can move and reshape entire galaxies,

Image Description: A spiral galaxy. Its disc glows visibly from the center, and has faint dust threaded through it. A spiral arm curves around the left edge of the disc and is noticeably more dense with bright blue spots, where there are hot and new stars, than the rest. Opposite, the disc stretches out into a short tail where it covers a distant background galaxy. Around it, other distant galaxies and nearby stars are visible.

Credit: ESA/Hubble & NASA, M. Sun

Release Date: Oct. 21, 2024

#NASA #Hubble #Astronomy #Space #Science #Galaxies #Galaxy #IC3225 #SpiralGalaxy #Virgo #Constellation #VirgoCluster #GalaxyCluster #RAMPressure #Cosmos #Universe #HubbleSpaceTelescope #HST #ESA #Europe #GSFC #STScI #UnitedStates #STEM #Education

Putting The Jewel Box Star Cluster into Perspective (composite image)

Putting The Jewel Box Star Cluster into Perspective (composite image)

This composite image serves as a still "zoom-in", showing the rich star field where NGC 4755 nestles and then moving in to the detailed Hubble Space Telescope image of the Kappa Crucis Cluster, or Jewel Box, itself.

The range of images begins with a very wide-field view of the sky surrounding NGC 4755. The images then progressively "zoom in" to reveal a "close-up" of the Jewel Box, featuring several very bright, pale blue supergiant stars, a solitary ruby-red supergiant and a variety of other brilliantly colored stars.

Distance: 6,500 light years

The picture on the top left was taken from the ground with a 35-mm camera. The next image is from the Digitized Sky Survey 2 (DSS2), a large digital atlas of the sky. Next is a very sharp image from the Wide Field Imager (WFI) on the MPG/ESO 2.2-metre telescope at the European Southern Observatory's La Silla Observatory

The first image (left) on the bottom row was taken by the FORS1 instrument on the European Southern Observatory  Very Large Telescope at Paranal Observatory. The last image (at bottom right) is the one taken by the legendary (and now retired) WFPC2 instrument aboard Hubble.

Credit: European Southern Observatory (ESO), NASA/European Space Agency (ESA), Digitized Sky Survey 2 and Jesús Maíz Apellániz (Instituto de Astrofísica de Andalucía, Spain)

Release Date: Oct. 29, 2009

#NASA #ESA #ESO #Astronomy #Space #Science #Star #Mimosa #Nebulae #Nebula #CoalSackNebula #StarClusters #StarCluster #NGC4755 #KappaCrucisCluster #SouthernCross #Crux #Constellation #MilkyWayGalaxy #Cosmos #Universe #DSS2 #STScI #UnitedStates #Europe #Infographic #STEM #Education

The Region around The Jewel Box Star Cluster: NGC 4755 | Digitized Sky Survey 2

The Region around The Jewel Box Star Cluster: NGC 4755 | Digitized Sky Survey 2

A wide-field ground-based image of the region around The Jewel Box star cluster (NGC 4755) constructed from Digitized Sky Survey 2 (DSS2) data. The bright star is Mimosa, one of the main four stars in the Southern Cross (Crux). The darkness towards the bottom of the image is part of the Coal Sack nebula—a vast area with obscuring dust easily visible to the unaided eye. 

Distance: 6,500 light years

The Digitized Sky Survey (DSS) is a ground-based imaging survey of the entire sky in several colors of light produced by the Space Telescope Science Institute through its Guide Star Survey group.

The field of view is approximately 2.8 degrees x 2.9 degrees.

Credit: ESO, European Space Agency/Hubble and Digitized Sky Survey 2

Acknowledgment: Davide De Martin (ESA/Hubble)

Release Date: Oct. 29, 2009

#NASA #ESA #ESO #Astronomy #Space #Science #Star #Mimosa #Nebulae #Nebula #CoalSackNebula #StarClusters #StarCluster #NGC4755 #KappaCrucisCluster #SouthernCross #Crux #Constellation #MilkyWayGalaxy #Cosmos #Universe #DSS2 #STScI #UnitedStates #Europe #STEM #Education

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

#NASA #ESA #Astronomy #Space #Science #StarClusters #StarCluster #NGC4755 #KappaCrucisCluster #Crux #Constellation #MilkyWayGalaxy #Cosmos #Universe #MPGESOTelescope #LaSillaObservatory #AtacamaDesert #Chile #Europe #STEM #Education

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

#NASA #ESA #Astronomy #Space #Science #StarClusters #StarCluster #NGC4755 #KappaCrucisCluster #Crux #Constellation #MilkyWayGalaxy #Cosmos #Universe #VLT #FORS1 #ParanalObservatory #AtacamaDesert #Chile #Europe #STEM #Education