July 20, 2020 - Two Clusters, Too Young
Two Clusters, Too Young The open cluster NGC 1850 is an eye-catching object, a “super star cluster” surrounded by a filigree pattern of diffuse gas, which scientists believe was created by the explosion of massive stars. NGC 1850 is the second brightest star cluster in the Large Magellanic Cloud, a satellite galaxy of our own Milky Way about 160,000 light-years away in the constellation Dorado. It is unlike nearly all globular clusters in our own galaxy because the two components of the cluster are both relatively young. It consists of a main globular-like cluster in the center, and an even younger, smaller cluster, seen above and to the right, composed of extremely hot blue stars and fainter red T-Tauri stars. The main cluster is 50 million years old; the smaller cluster is four million years old.
Image credit: NASA, ESA, and Martino Romaniello (European Southern Observatory, Germany)
Weekly Calendar
July 20 - 26, 2020
Holidays - Sky Events - Space History
Monday 20
New Moon 1:33 PM ET
Saturn at opposition
1969: Apollo 11 astronauts become first humans walk on Moon
1976: Viking 1 lands on Mars
1999: Liberty Bell 7 capsule recovered from Atlantic Ocean after 38 years
2019: Soyuz MS-13 launched carrying ISS Expedition 60/61 crew
Tuesday 21
1961: Liberty Bell 7 suborbital flight; capsule sinks in Atlantic Ocean
1969: Apollo 11 lunar module Eagle lifts off from Moon
Wednesday 22
Mercury greatest elongation (20° W)
1784: Friedrich Bessel born
1994: Last fragment of Comet Shoemaker-Levy 9 impacts Jupiter
Thursday 23
1928: Vera Rubin born
1972: Landsat 1 launched
1999: STS-93 Columbia launched, deploys Chandra X-Ray Observatory
Friday 24
1950: First rocket launched from Cape Canaveral
1969: Apollo 11 crew returns to Earth
1975: Apollo-Soyuz crew returns to Earth, last US splashdown
2009: Canaries Great Telescope dedicated
Saturday 25
Moon at perigee
1978: Viking 2 orbiter ceases operation
1984: Svetlana Savitskaya becomes first woman to walk in space
2000: Zvezda Service Module docks with International Space Station
Sunday 26
1958: Explorer IV launched
1971: Apollo 15 launched, fourth lunar landing mission, first mission to use lunar rover
2005: STS-114 Discovery launched