File:Caldwell 94.jpg
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Summary
[edit]DescriptionCaldwell 94.jpg |
English: Star clusters are sometimes held together tightly by gravity, as is the case with the densely packed crowds of hundreds of thousands of stars called globular clusters. Other times, they can be more loosely bound, irregularly shaped groupings of up to several thousand stars. While globular clusters are some of the most ancient members of the galaxy, open clusters are relatively young. This Hubble image features stars at the center of Caldwell 94, an open cluster that is only about 16 million years old.
Just like old school friends that drift apart after graduation, the stars in an open cluster only remain together for a limited time. They gradually disperse into space, pulled away by the gravitational tugs of other passing clusters and clouds of gas. Most open clusters dissolve within a few hundred million years, whereas the more tightly bound globular clusters can exist for billions of years. Caldwell 94, also cataloged as NGC 4755 and commonly called the Jewel Box cluster, is a spartan collection of just over 100 stars. The cluster is about 6,500 light-years away from Earth, which means that the light we see from it today was emitted before the Great Pyramids in Egypt were built. Caldwell 94 was targeted for Hubble observation because open star clusters make excellent astronomical laboratories. The stars may have different masses, but all are at about the same distance, move in the same general direction, and may have approximately the same age and chemical composition since they formed together in a massive cloud of gas and dust. Hubble’s image of Caldwell 94, taken with the Wide Field and Planetary Camera 2, was the first of any open cluster in our galaxy recorded in infrared, visible and ultraviolet light. Scientists had never before had the opportunity to explore open star clusters over this range of wavelengths, so Hubble’s observations are helping to broaden our understanding of stellar astrophysics. The stars in the cluster can be studied and compared to find out more about stellar evolution, the ages of clusters and much more. The cluster, which was discovered by French astronomer Nicolas Louis de Lacaille in 1752, is found in the constellation Crux and is best viewed in the autumn from the Southern Hemisphere. It is only visible to those in the Northern Hemisphere who are far enough south to see the Southern Cross. With a magnitude of 4.2, Caldwell 94 is visible to the naked eye, but without magnification it will masquerade as a single star. Binoculars will refine the cluster into its separate members, while a telescope will provide an even more spectacular view of Caldwell 94’s colorful stellar jewels. For more information about Hubble’s observations of Caldwell 94, see: www.spacetelescope.org/news/heic0913/ Credit: NASA/ESA and Jesús Maíz Apellániz (Instituto de Astrofísica de Andalucía, Spain) For Hubble's Caldwell catalog site and information on how to find these objects in the night sky, visit: www.nasa.gov/content/goddard/hubble-s-caldwell-catalog |
Date | |
Source | https://www.flickr.com/photos/144614754@N02/49214420591/ |
Author | NASA Hubble |
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This image was originally posted to Flickr by NASA Hubble at https://flickr.com/photos/144614754@N02/49214420591 (archive). It was reviewed on 23 February 2020 by FlickreviewR 2 and was confirmed to be licensed under the terms of the cc-by-2.0. |
23 February 2020
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Metadata
This file contains additional information such as Exif metadata which may have been added by the digital camera, scanner, or software program used to create or digitize it. If the file has been modified from its original state, some details such as the timestamp may not fully reflect those of the original file. The timestamp is only as accurate as the clock in the camera, and it may be completely wrong.
Image title |
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Date and time of data generation | 10:00, 29 October 2009 |
Short title | A Hubble gem: the Jewel Box |
Credit/Provider | NASA/ESA and Jesús Maíz Apell |
Source | ESA/Hubble |
Publisher | ESA/Hubble |
Usage terms |
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JPEG file comment | This image is a "close-up' view from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope of NGC 4755, or the Jewel Box cluster. Several very bright, pale blue supergiant stars, a solitary ruby-red supergiant and a variety of other brilliantly coloured stars are visible in the image, as well as many much fainter ones, often with intriguing colours. 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. This is the first image of an open galactic cluster with imaging extending from the far ultraviolet to the near-infrared. |
Orientation | Normal |
Horizontal resolution | 72 dpi |
Vertical resolution | 72 dpi |
Software used | Adobe Photoshop CS3 Windows |
File change date and time | 13:45, 26 October 2009 |
Y and C positioning | Centered |
Exif version | 2.31 |
Date and time of digitizing | 13:45, 26 October 2009 |
Meaning of each component |
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Supported Flashpix version | 1 |
Color space | Uncalibrated |
IIM version | 4 |
Keywords | NGC 4755 |
Bits per component |
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Height | 1,487 px |
Width | 3,016 px |
Pixel composition | RGB |
Number of components | 3 |
Contact information |
http://www.spacetelescope.org/ Karl-Schwarzschild-Strasse 2 Garching bei München, , D-85748 Germany |
Type of media | Observation |
Date metadata was last modified | 14:45, 26 October 2009 |