Image Credit & Copyright: Lorand Fenyes
Tuesday, January 7, 2014
Astronomy Picture of the Day: January 7th of 2014
2014 January 7
M7: Open Star Cluster in Scorpius
Image Credit & Copyright: Lorand Fenyes
Explanation: M7 is one of the most prominent open clusters of stars on the sky. The cluster, dominated by bright blue stars, can be seen with the naked eye in a dark sky in the tail of the constellation of the Scorpion (Scorpius). M7 contains about 100 stars in total, is about 200 million years old, spans 25 light-years across, and lies about 1000 light-years away. The above deep image, taken last June from Hungary through a small telescope, combines over 60 two-minute exposures. The M7 star cluster has been known since ancient times, being noted by Ptolemy in the year 130 AD. Also visible are a dark dust cloud and literally millions of unrelated stars towards the Galactic center.
Image Credit & Copyright: Lorand Fenyes
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