Pleiades: The Seven Sisters Star Cluster

Explanation: Have you ever seen the Pleiades star cluster? Even if you have, you probably have never seen it as large and clear as this. Perhaps the most famous star cluster on the sky, the bright stars of the Pleiades can be seen with the unaided eye even from the depths of a light-polluted city. With a long exposure from a dark location, though, the dust cloud surrounding the Pleiades star cluster becomes very evident. The featured 11-hour exposure, taken from the Siding Spring Observatory in Australia, covers a sky area several times the size of the full moon. Also known as the Seven Sisters and M45, the Pleiades lies about 400 light years away toward the constellation of the Bull (Taurus). A common legend with a modern twist is that one of the brighter stars faded since the cluster was named, leaving only six of the sister stars visible to the unaided eye. The actual number of Pleiades stars visible, however, may be more or less than seven, depending on the darkness of the surrounding sky and the clarity of the observer's eyesight.

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What is going on in this mountain? There are stars in the sky. There is a column of gas and dust in the Eagle Nebula. A pillar like this is so low in density that you can easily fly through it, it only appears solid because of its high dust content. Newly formed stars illuminate the areas. The blue light is scattered away by the dust of the stars. The image was captured by the James Webb Space Telescope in near-infrared light. Over the next 100,000 years, the stellar birth column will be destroyed by light, wind, and supernovas from these young stars.