January 7, 2014
Somewhere between the hydrogen and the starlight, between the gravity and the grace, the universe conspired to bring you into being.
M7: Open Star Cluster in Scorpius
Birthday · January 7, 2014
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APOD published January 7, 2014. Credit: Lorand Fenyes. A publication-date match, not a photo taken on your date. Independent of NASA.
M7 is one of the most prominent open clusters of stars on the sky. The cluster, dominated by bright blue stars, can be seen with the naked eye in a dark sky in the tail of the constellation of the Scorpion (Scorpius). M7 contains about 100 stars in total, is about 200 million years old, spans 25 light-years across, and lies about 1000 light-years away. The above deep image, taken last June from Hungary through a small telescope, combines over 60 two-minute exposures. The M7 star cluster has been known since ancient times, being noted by Ptolemy in the year 130 AD. Also visible are a dark dust cloud and literally millions of unrelated stars towards the Galactic center.
Image credit: Lorand Fenyes