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Credit & Copyright: S. Kohle,
T. Credner et al.
Explanation:
Many stars form in clusters. Two types of
star clusters are visible in our Milky Way Galaxy:
open clusters and globular clusters.
Open clusters like M50, shown above,
typically contain hundreds of stars,
many of which are bright, young, and blue. In fact, most of the
bright blue stars in the above picture belong to M50,
but most of the dimmer, red stars do not. M50 lies about 3000
light-years from Earth and is about
20 light years across. Open clusters
tend to have irregular shapes and are mostly found in the plane
of our Galaxy.
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NASA Web Site Statements, Warnings, and Disclaimers
NASA Official: Jay Norris. Specific rights apply.
A service of: LHEA at NASA / GSFC
& Michigan Tech. U.
Based on Astronomy Picture
Of the Day
Publications with keywords: open cluster
Publications with words: open cluster
See also:
- APOD: 2025 April 28 B Gum 37 and the Southern Tadpoles
- Open Star Clusters M35 and NGC 2158
- APOD: 2025 February 25 B M41: The Little Beehive Star Cluster
- APOD: 2025 February 11 B The Spider and the Fly
- APOD: 2024 October 29 B NGC 602: Stars Versus Pillars from Webb
- NGC 7789: Caroline s Rose
- APOD: 2024 July 2 B NGC 602: Oyster Star Cluster