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> Open star cluster NGC 3293 in Carina

Open star cluster NGC 3293 in Carina

author: Anglo-Australian Observatory/David Malin Images/Novapix

reference: a-aou32-93004

Image Size 300 DPI: 40 * 51 cm

Unlike the Sun, many stars are found in brilliant clusters such as NGC 3293 where they spend their lives. At birth, which should have been at much the same time for all the stars in NGC 3293, the most massive stars are hot and very luminous and therefore appear as the brightest blue stars. With time they deplete their supplies of nuclear fuel, hydrogen. This evolutionary process involves cooling, so that the stars become redder, and would ordinarily disappear from view, but they also swell to gigantic proportions and so remain visible. The bright orange star in NGC 3293 is the member of the cluster which has aged fastest. This cluster is in the constellation of Carina at a distance of about 8500 light years.

Keywords for this photo:

1991 - AAO - ASTRONOMY - CARINA - NGC 3293 - OPEN CLUSTER - POSTER - SIDING SPRING - SOUTHERN HEMISPHERE - STAR - STAR CLUSTER -