Todays picture of the day is in my opinion simple but very effective.
I won't bore you with long drawn out explanations that are likely to be wrong,but will instead allow the caption below to offer the explanation of this beautiful view.
Open clusters of stars can be near or far, young or old, and diffuse or compact. Open clusters may contain from 100 to 10,000 stars, all of which formed at nearly the same time. Bright blue stars frequently distinguish younger open clusters. M35, pictured above on the upper left, is a relatively nearby at 2800 light years distant, relatively young at 150 million years old, and relatively diffuse, with about 2500 stars spread out over a volume 30 light years across. An older and more compact open cluster, NGC 2158, is visible above on the lower right. NGC 2158 is four times more distant that M35, over 10 times older, and much more compact as it contains many more stars in roughly the same volume of space. NGC 2158's bright blue stars have self-destructed, leaving cluster light to be dominated by older and yellower stars. Both clusters are visible toward the constellation of Gemini -- M35 with binoculars and NGC 2158 with a small telescope.
A larger version of this picture is available here this is a Jpeg file of 329K.
Previous Pic Of The Day posts
20th Dec 02
19th Dec 02
18th Dec 02
17th Dec 02
16th Dec 02
15th Dec 02
14th Dec 02
I won't bore you with long drawn out explanations that are likely to be wrong,but will instead allow the caption below to offer the explanation of this beautiful view.
Open clusters of stars can be near or far, young or old, and diffuse or compact. Open clusters may contain from 100 to 10,000 stars, all of which formed at nearly the same time. Bright blue stars frequently distinguish younger open clusters. M35, pictured above on the upper left, is a relatively nearby at 2800 light years distant, relatively young at 150 million years old, and relatively diffuse, with about 2500 stars spread out over a volume 30 light years across. An older and more compact open cluster, NGC 2158, is visible above on the lower right. NGC 2158 is four times more distant that M35, over 10 times older, and much more compact as it contains many more stars in roughly the same volume of space. NGC 2158's bright blue stars have self-destructed, leaving cluster light to be dominated by older and yellower stars. Both clusters are visible toward the constellation of Gemini -- M35 with binoculars and NGC 2158 with a small telescope.
A larger version of this picture is available here this is a Jpeg file of 329K.
Previous Pic Of The Day posts
20th Dec 02
19th Dec 02
18th Dec 02
17th Dec 02
16th Dec 02
15th Dec 02
14th Dec 02
Good one again , my Space image library folder getting quite full now .... BTW the transplant surgery went well ,,, patient fully recovered and doing about 9 wu's per day at best guess .