Pleiades is one of the most recognizable features in the night sky. It is visible with the naked eye, even from light polluted areas. It is a middle aged star cluster containing hot B-type stars and lies only 444 light years away from Earth. It is the closest Messier object to us as well as one of the closet star clusters.
The stars within the cluster are roughly 100 million years old and they likely formed within a nebula similar in structure to the Orion Nebula. The blue light from the stars is being reflected off nearby clouds of dust. These dust clouds are actually unrelated to the cluster, as they are moving in a different direction than the cluster itself. The cluster and the dust clouds just happen to be passing by each other during our lifetime as they individually travel through space.
One of the more interesting features of the object is IC349, also known as Barnard's Merope Nebula. Part of the unrelated area of dust and interstellar medium, It is a small scale cloud that is being disrupted by Merope's stellar winds and radiation as they pass each other. It currently lies very close to the star Merope in the NE quadrant of the image, close to the image center.
My Image of IC349
Hubble view of IC349
It is estimated that the Pleiades cluster will remain together for roughly about another 250 million years, after which it will disperse due to gravitational interactions with its galactic neighborhood.
Zooming into the background of the image, you can find an amazing number and variety of distant galaxies.
Thanks for stopping by.
CS
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