Star Clusters Young and Old, Near and Far

Wise_wise2010-013_1024

wise_WISE2010-013 April 23rd, 2010

Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/UCLA

This colorful image from WISE (Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer) is a view of an area of the sky over 12 times the size of the full Moon on the border of the constellations Sagittarius and Corona Australis. Two types of star clusters are visible in the image.

The wispy nebula running top to bottom of this image is a nearby star forming region. In visible light the dust within the nebula obscures and reflects the light of the stars within and behind it, giving rise to several catalogued nebula (NGC 6726, NGC 6727, NGC 6729, IC 4812). But here in infrared light we see the light of the dust itself as it is warmed by the light of the newborn stars in the cluster (green and red). We also see through the dust to peer at the stars nestled within (blue/cyan). This star cluster has been called the Coronet Cluster. It is located some 420 light-years from Earth, and stretches about 10 light-years across. The Coronet Cluster is a relatively loose cluster of only a few dozen stars, many of which are only a few million years old.

Just to the left of center is a very different kind of star cluster. NGC 6723 is a globular star cluster located some 29,000 light-years away from Earth, and spans about 65 light-years in size. Globular star clusters contain hundreds of thousands to millions of stars and orbit around the Galaxy in a spherical halo surrounding it. These are some of the oldest stars in the Universe, over 10 billion years old.

All four infrared detectors aboard WISE were used to make this image. Color is representational: blue and cyan represent infrared light at wavelengths of 3.4 and 4.6 microns, which is dominated by light from stars. Green and red represent light at 12 and 22 microns, which is mostly light from warm dust.

Provider: Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer

Image Source: /image/wise/WISE2010-013

Curator: Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer, Berkeley, CA, USA

Image Use Policy: Pulic Domain

Image Details

Image Type
Observation
Object Name
NGC 6723 NGC 6726 NGC 6727 NGC 6729 IC 4812
Subject - Milky Way
Star > Population
Nebula > Type > Star Formation
Nebula > Appearance > Reflection
Wise_wise2010-013_128
 

Position Details

Position (ICRS)
RA = 18h 59m 35.9s
DEC = -37° 0’ 42.0”
Orientation
North is 96.0° CCW
Field of View
1.6 x 1.6 degrees
Constellation
Corona Australis
Wise_wise2010-013_1280
×
ID
WISE2010-013
Subject Category
B.3.4.6.2.   B.4.1.2.   B.4.2.2.  
Subject Name
NGC 6723, NGC 6726, NGC 6727, NGC 6729, IC 4812
Credits
NASA/JPL-Caltech/UCLA
Release Date
2010-04-23
Lightyears
Redshift
Reference Url
/image/wise/WISE2010-013
Type
Observation
Image Quality
Good
Distance Notes
Facility
Instrument
Color Assignment
Band
Bandpass
Central Wavelength
Start Time
Integration Time
Dataset ID
Notes
Coordinate Frame
ICRS
Equinox
J2000
Reference Value
284.899736, -37.011655
Reference Dimension
4095, 4095
Reference Pixel
2048, 2048
Scale
-3.81944439141100e-04, 3.81944439141100e-04
Rotation
96.048305
Coordinate System Projection:
SIN
Quality
Full
FITS Header
Notes
Creator (Curator)
Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer
URL
http://wise.astro.ucla.edu
Name
Email
outreach@ssl.berkeley.edu
Telephone
Address
7 Gauss Way
City
Berkeley
State/Province
CA
Postal Code
94720
Country
USA
Rights
Pulic Domain
Publisher
Publisher ID
wise
Resource ID
Resource URL
/image/wise/WISE2010-013
Related Resources
Metadata Date
2011-08-05
Metadata Version
1.2
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Detailed color mapping information coming soon...

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There is no distance meta data in this image.

 

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