A new image taken with the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope provides a detailed look at an open cluster known as NGC 2164.
This Hubble image shows NGC 2164, a young open cluster located some 160,000 light-years away in the constellation of Dorado. The color image is made up of observations from Hubble’s Wide Field Camera 3 (WFC3) in the ultraviolet, near-infrared, and optical parts of the spectrum. It is based on data obtained through four filters. The color results from assigning different hues to each monochromatic image associated with an individual filter. Image credit: NASA / ESA / Hubble / J. Kalirai / Milone.
Open clusters are loosely bound groups of a few tens to a few thousand stars.
These objects are so-named due to the fact that individual stars are easily resolved through a telescope.
Some examples such as the Hyades and Pleiades are so close that the individual stars can be clearly distinguished by the naked eye
Stars in an open cluster have a common origin — they formed from the same initial giant molecular cloud.
Owing to their open and diffuse structure, open clusters are not particularly stable, and their constituent stars might disperse after a few million years.
For this reason, they are found in spiral and irregular galaxies, where new stars are being formed, but not in elliptical galaxies, which are not forming stars and in which any open clusters would have long since broken up.
NGC 2164, otherwise known as ESO 57-62 or BMG 191, is a young open cluster in the southern constellation of Dorado.
The object was first discovered on September 27, 1826 by the Scottish astronomer James Dunlop.
“NGC 2164 is located within one of the Milky Way galaxy’s closest neighbors — the satellite galaxy known as the Large Magellanic Cloud,” Hubble astronomers said.
“The Large Magellanic cloud is a relatively small galaxy that lies about 160,000 light-years from Earth.”
“It is considered a satellite galaxy because it is gravitationally bound to the Milky Way.”
“In fact, the Large Magellanic cloud is on a very slow collision course with the Milky Way — it’s predicted that they will collide 2.4 billion years from now,” they added.
“The Large Magellanic Cloud only contains about one hundredth as much mass as the Milky Way, but it still contains billions of stars.”
“NGC 2164 is in good company in the Large Magellanic Cloud — the satellite galaxy is home to roughly 700 open clusters, alongside about 60 globular clusters.”
