NASA Astronomy Picture of the Day Collection

Open Cluster NGC 290: A Stellar Jewel Box

Jewels don't shine this bright -- only stars do. Like gems in a jewel box, though, the stars of open cluster [ http://en.wikipedia…] NGC 290 glitter in a beautiful display [ http://antwrp.gsfc.…] of brightness and color. The photogenic cluster, pictured above [ http://hubblesite.o…], was captured recently by the orbiting Hubble Space Telescope [ http://antwrp.gsfc.…]. Open clusters of stars are younger, contain few stars, and contain a much higher fraction of blue stars than do globular clusters [ http://antwrp.gsfc.…] of stars. NGC 290 lies about 200,000 light-years [ http://chandra.harv…] distant in a neighboring galaxy called the Small Cloud of Magellan [ http://antwrp.gsfc.…] (SMC). The open cluster [ http://antwrp.gsfc.…] 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 [ http://en.wikipedia…], since all the open cluster's stars were born at about the same time.

ESA [ http://www.spacetel…] & NASA [ http://www.nasa.gov/];

E. Olszewski [ http://www.as.arizo…] (U. Arizona [ http://www.as.arizo…]) HST

Arizona

Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC)

Magellan

open cluster

Hubble Space Telescope (HST)

New General Catalogue (NGC)

http://antwrp.gsfc.…

SPD-APOD-ap060501