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. 2025 January 27 [2]A cluster of bright blue stars is seen on the upper right while an unusual dome-like mountain occupies most of the frame. 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 astrophotographer was unexpectedly rewarded by an [20]electrical blackout, making the [21]background sky unusually [22]dark. Astrophysicists: [23]Browse 3,500+ codes in the Astrophysics Source Code Library Tomorrow's picture: big comet __________________________________________________________________ [24]< | [25]Archive | [26]Submissions | [27]Index | [28]Search | [29]Calendar | [30]RSS | [31]Education | [32]About APOD | [33]Discuss | [34]> __________________________________________________________________ Authors & editors: [35]Robert Nemiroff ([36]MTU) & [37]Jerry Bonnell ([38]UMCP) NASA Official: Amber Straughn [39]Specific rights apply. [40]NASA Web Privacy, [41]Accessibility, [42]Notices; A service of: [43]ASD at [44]NASA / [45]GSFC, [46]NASA Science Activation & [47]Michigan Tech. U. References 1. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/archivepix.html 2. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/2501/HalfPleiades_Venkatraman_1365.jpg 3. https://dheera.net/about 4. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap241209.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://science.nasa.gov/sun/facts/ 9. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Open_cluster 10. https://www.astronomy.com/observing/ask-astro-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/deepscapes/#&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. http://ascl.net/ 24. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap250126.html 25. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/archivepix.html 26. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/lib/apsubmit2015.html 27. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/lib/aptree.html 28. https://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/cgi-bin/apod/apod_search 29. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/calendar/allyears.html 30. https://apod.com/feed.rss 31. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/lib/edlinks.html 32. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/lib/about_apod.html 33. https://asterisk.apod.com/discuss_apod.php?date=250127 34. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap250128.html 35. http://www.phy.mtu.edu/faculty/Nemiroff.html 36. http://www.phy.mtu.edu/ 37. https://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/htmltest/jbonnell/www/bonnell.html 38. http://www.astro.umd.edu/ 39. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/lib/about_apod.html#srapply 40. https://www.nasa.gov/about/highlights/HP_Privacy.html 41. https://www.nasa.gov/general/accessibility/ 42. https://www.nasa.gov/privacy/ 43. https://astrophysics.gsfc.nasa.gov/ 44. https://www.nasa.gov/ 45. https://www.nasa.gov/centers/goddard/ 46. https://science.nasa.gov/learners 47. http://www.mtu.edu/