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Astronomy Picture of the Day -- Open Cluster NGC 290: A Stellar Jewel Box
NASA ^ | June 08, 2014 | (see photo credit)

Posted on 07/10/2014 8:29:52 PM PDT by SunkenCiv

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.

June 08, 2014

(Excerpt) Read more at 129.164.179.22 ...


TOPICS: Astronomy; Astronomy Picture of the Day; Science
KEYWORDS: apod; astronomy; ngc290; science; smallmagellaniccloud
[Credit: ESA & NASA; Acknowledgement: E. Olszewski (U. Arizona)]

1 posted on 07/10/2014 8:29:52 PM PDT by SunkenCiv
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To: brytlea; cripplecreek; decimon; bigheadfred; KoRn; Grammy; steelyourfaith; Mmogamer; dayglored; ...
The Big One

2 posted on 07/10/2014 8:30:33 PM PDT by SunkenCiv (https://secure.freerepublic.com/donate/)
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To: SunkenCiv

My jewelry box has a few cheap silver rings and a broken earring missing it’s clamp. I prefer NGC290. [smiles]


3 posted on 07/11/2014 5:55:18 AM PDT by TheOldLady
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