Astronomy Picture of the Day [1]Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation written by a professional astronomer. 2019 October 13 [2]See Explanation. Clicking on the picture will download the highest resolution version available. A Stellar Jewel Box: Open Cluster NGC 290 Image Credit: [3]NASA, [4]ESA, [5]Hubble; Acknowledgement: E. Olzewski (U. Arizona) Explanation: Jewels don't shine this bright -- only stars do. Like gems in a jewel box, though, the stars of [6]open cluster NGC 290 glitter in a [7]beautiful display of brightness and color. The photogenic cluster, [8]pictured here, was captured in 2006 by the orbiting [9]Hubble Space Telescope. Open clusters of [10]stars are younger, contain few stars, and contain a much higher fraction of blue stars than do [11]globular clusters of stars. NGC 290 lies about 200,000 [12]light-years distant in a neighboring galaxy called the [13]Small Cloud of Magellan (SMC). The [14]open cluster contains hundreds of stars and spans about 65 light years across. [15]NGC 290 and other open clusters are good laboratories for studying how [16]stars of different masses evolve, since all the open cluster's stars were born at about the same time. Tomorrow's picture: andromeda before photoshop __________________________________________________________________ [17]< | [18]Archive | [19]Submissions | [20]Index | [21]Search | [22]Calendar | [23]RSS | [24]Education | [25]About APOD | [26]Discuss | [27]> __________________________________________________________________ Authors & editors: [28]Robert Nemiroff ([29]MTU) & [30]Jerry Bonnell ([31]UMCP) NASA Official: Phillip Newman [32]Specific rights apply. [33]NASA Web Privacy Policy and Important Notices A service of: [34]ASD at [35]NASA / [36]GSFC & [37]Michigan Tech. U. References 1. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/archivepix.html 2. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/1910/Ngc290_HubbleOlszewski_1701.jpg 3. https://www.nasa.gov/ 4. http://www.esa.int/ 5. https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/hubble/main/index.html 6. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Open_cluster 7. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap010618.html 8. https://hubblesite.org/image/1900/gallery 9. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap021124.html 10. https://science.nasa.gov/astrophysics/focus-areas/how-do-stars-form-and-evolve 11. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/globular_clusters.html 12. https://chandra.harvard.edu/photo/cosmic_distance.html 13. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap050617.html 14. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap060109.html 15. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hSSA5lXgtwI 16. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stellar_evolution 17. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap191012.html 18. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/archivepix.html 19. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/lib/apsubmit2015.html 20. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/lib/aptree.html 21. https://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/cgi-bin/apod/apod_search 22. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/calendar/allyears.html 23. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod.rss 24. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/lib/edlinks.html 25. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/lib/about_apod.html 26. http://asterisk.apod.com/discuss_apod.php?date=191013 27. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap191014.html 28. http://www.phy.mtu.edu/faculty/Nemiroff.html 29. http://www.phy.mtu.edu/ 30. https://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/htmltest/jbonnell/www/bonnell.html 31. http://www.astro.umd.edu/ 32. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/lib/about_apod.html#srapply 33. https://www.nasa.gov/about/highlights/HP_Privacy.html 34. https://astrophysics.gsfc.nasa.gov/ 35. https://www.nasa.gov/ 36. https://www.nasa.gov/centers/goddard/ 37. http://www.mtu.edu/