﻿ 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. 2022 July 19 [2]The featured image shows the bright blue Pleiades star cluster behind Half Dome, a large circular rock formation that appears dark but with bright grooves. Please see the explanation for more detailed information. Pleiades over Half Dome Image Credit & Copyright: [3]Dheera Venkatraman Explanation: Stars come in bunches. The most famous bunch of stars on the sky is [4]the Pleiades, a [5]bright cluster that can be easily seen with the [6]unaided eye. The Pleiades lies only about 450 [7]light years away, formed about 100 million years ago, and will likely last about another 250 million years. [8]Our Sun was likely born in a [9]star cluster, but now, being about 4.5 billion years old, its [10]stellar birth companions have long since dispersed. The [11]Pleiades star cluster is pictured over [12]Half Dome, a famous rock structure in [13]Yosemite National Park in [14]California, [15]USA. The [16]featured image is a composite of 28 foreground exposures and 174 images of the stellar background, all taken from the same location and by the same camera on the same night in October 2019. After [17]calculating the timing of a future juxtaposition of the [18]Pleiades and [19]Half Dome, the astrophotrographer was unexpectedly rewarded by an [20]electrical blackout, making the [21]background sky unusually [22]dark. Tomorrow's picture: webb of ring __________________________________________________________________ [23]< | [24]Archive | [25]Submissions | [26]Index | [27]Search | [28]Calendar | [29]RSS | [30]Education | [31]About APOD | [32]Discuss | [33]> __________________________________________________________________ Authors & editors: [34]Robert Nemiroff ([35]MTU) & [36]Jerry Bonnell ([37]UMCP) NASA Official: Phillip Newman [38]Specific rights apply. [39]NASA Web Privacy Policy and Important Notices A service of: [40]ASD at [41]NASA / [42]GSFC & [43]Michigan Tech. U. References 1. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/archivepix.html 2. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/2207/HalfPleiades_Venkatraman_1365.jpg 3. https://dheera.net/about 4. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap211124.html 5. https://go-astronomy.com/star-clusters.php 6. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Naked_eye#In_astronomy 7. https://spaceplace.nasa.gov/light-year/en/ 8. https://solarsystem.nasa.gov/solar-system/sun/in-depth/ 9. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Open_cluster 10. https://astronomy.com/magazine/ask-astro/2021/05/what-happened-to-the-suns-original-star-cluster 11. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pleiades 12. https://youtu.be/mEOkthVDha0 13. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yosemite_National_Park 14. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/California 15. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States 16. https://dheera.net/photos/calnight/#&gid=1&pid=2 17. https://media.istockphoto.com/photos/dog-as-financial-work-with-report-pens-and-calculater-on-table-dog-picture-id1165372431?k=20&m=1165372431&s=612x612&w=0&h=R-3PIrplLqu4k4lx6ynWNhW5b10Rt5dLL2rqfWExzxU= 18. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap220405.html 19. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Half_Dome 20. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2019_California_power_shutoffs 21. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap200408.html 22. https://www.darksky.org/ 23. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap220718.html 24. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/archivepix.html 25. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/lib/apsubmit2015.html 26. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/lib/aptree.html 27. https://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/cgi-bin/apod/apod_search 28. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/calendar/allyears.html 29. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod.rss 30. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/lib/edlinks.html 31. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/lib/about_apod.html 32. http://asterisk.apod.com/discuss_apod.php?date=220719 33. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap220720.html 34. http://www.phy.mtu.edu/faculty/Nemiroff.html 35. http://www.phy.mtu.edu/ 36. https://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/htmltest/jbonnell/www/bonnell.html 37. http://www.astro.umd.edu/ 38. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/lib/about_apod.html#srapply 39. https://www.nasa.gov/about/highlights/HP_Privacy.html 40. https://astrophysics.gsfc.nasa.gov/ 41. https://www.nasa.gov/ 42. https://www.nasa.gov/centers/goddard/ 43. http://www.mtu.edu/