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                        Astronomy Picture of the Day

    Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our
      fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation
                    written by a professional astronomer.

                              2025 February 27

                     Open Star Clusters M35 and NGC 2158
      Image Credit & Copyright: Evan Tsai, LATTE: Lulin-ASIAA Telescope

   Explanation: Framed in this single, starry, telescopic field of view
   are two open star clusters, M35 and NGC 2158. Located within the
   boundaries of the constellation Gemini, they do appear to be side by
   side. Its stars concentrated toward the upper right, M35 is relatively
   nearby, though. M35 (also cataloged as NGC 2168) is a mere 2800
   light-years distant, with 400 or so stars spread out over a volume
   about 30 light-years across. Bright blue stars frequently distinguish
   younger open clusters like M35, whose age is estimated at 150 million
   years. At lower left, NGC 2158 is about four times more distant than
   M35 and much more compact, shining with the more yellowish light of a
   population of stars over 10 times older. In general, open star clusters
   are found along the plane of our Milky Way Galaxy. Loosely
   gravitationally bound, their member stars tend to be dispersed over
   billions of years as the open star clusters orbit the galactic center.

                     Tomorrow's picture: pixels in space
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