September 3, 1996
Long before your first heartbeat, stars were busy forging the elements you would one day call your own.
The Pleiades Star Cluster
Birthday · September 3, 1996
A little universe, just for you
Your date.
Ready to give.
Free PNG · 1080 × 1350 · No account needed
Image rights and credit requirements apply when sharing or reusing imagery.
Date & occasion only
Change the year
APOD published September 3, 1996. Credit: Royal Observatory, Edinburgh, Anglo-Australian Observatory. A publication-date match, not a photo taken on your date. Independent of NASA.
It is the most famous star cluster on the sky. The Pleiades can be seen without binoculars from even the depths of a light-polluted city. Also known as the Seven Sisters and M45, the Pleiades is one of the brightest and most easily visible open clusters on the sky. The Pleiades contains over 3000 stars, is about 400 light years away, and only 13 light years across. Quite evident in the above photograph is the blue reflection nebula that surrounds the bright cluster stars. Low mass, faint, brown dwarfs have recently been found in the Pleiades.
Image credit: Royal Observatory, Edinburgh, Anglo-Australian Observatory