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 February 27 [2]See Explanation. Clicking on the picture will download the highest resolution version available. Open Star Clusters M35 and NGC 2158 Image Credit & [3]Copyright: [4]Evan Tsai, LATTE: Lulin-ASIAA Telescope Explanation: [5]Framed in this single, starry, telescopic field of view are two open star clusters, M35 and NGC 2158. Located within the boundaries of the constellation Gemini, they do appear to be side by side. Its stars concentrated toward the upper right, M35 is relatively nearby, though. [6]M35 (also cataloged as NGC 2168) is a mere 2800 light-years distant, with 400 or so stars spread out over a volume about 30 light-years across. Bright blue stars frequently distinguish younger open clusters like [7]M35, whose age is estimated at 150 million years. At lower left, [8]NGC 2158 is about four times more distant than M35 and much more compact, shining with the more yellowish light of a population [9]of stars over 10 times older. In general, open star clusters are found along the plane of our [10]Milky Way Galaxy. Loosely gravitationally bound, their member stars [11]tend to be dispersed over billions of years as the open star clusters orbit the galactic center. Tomorrow's picture: pixels in space __________________________________________________________________ [12]< | [13]Archive | [14]Submissions | [15]Index | [16]Search | [17]Calendar | [18]RSS | [19]Education | [20]About APOD | [21]Discuss | [22]> __________________________________________________________________ Authors & editors: [23]Robert Nemiroff ([24]MTU) & [25]Jerry Bonnell ([26]UMCP) NASA Official: Amber Straughn [27]Specific rights apply. [28]NASA Web Privacy Policy and Important Notices A service of: [29]ASD at [30]NASA / [31]GSFC, [32]NASA Science Activation & [33]Michigan Tech. U. References 1. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/archivepix.html 2. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/2502/M35_NGC2158_2048.jpg 3. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/lib/about_apod.html#srapply 4. https://www.astrobin.com/users/mjrt/ 5. https://www.astrobin.com/m2fh5u/ 6. https://science.nasa.gov/mission/hubble/science/explore-the-night-sky/hubble-messier-catalog/messier-35/ 7. http://arxiv.org/abs/astro-ph/0011136 8. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NGC_2158 9. https://arxiv.org/abs/astro-ph/0202018 10. http://www.atlasoftheuniverse.com/galaxy.html 11. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Open_cluster#Eventual_fate 12. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap250226.html 13. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/archivepix.html 14. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/lib/apsubmit2015.html 15. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/lib/aptree.html 16. https://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/cgi-bin/apod/apod_search 17. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/calendar/allyears.html 18. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod.rss 19. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/lib/edlinks.html 20. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/lib/about_apod.html 21. http://asterisk.apod.com/discuss_apod.php?date=250227 22. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap250228.html 23. http://www.phy.mtu.edu/faculty/Nemiroff.html 24. http://www.phy.mtu.edu/ 25. https://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/htmltest/jbonnell/www/bonnell.html 26. http://www.astro.umd.edu/ 27. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/lib/about_apod.html#srapply 28. https://www.nasa.gov/about/highlights/HP_Privacy.html 29. https://astrophysics.gsfc.nasa.gov/ 30. https://www.nasa.gov/ 31. https://www.nasa.gov/centers/goddard/ 32. https://science.nasa.gov/learners 33. http://www.mtu.edu/