PIX4568196: Open cluster NGC 3293 in Carene - Open star cluster NGC 3293 in Carina - Star cluster located in the constellation Carene about 8500 years ago - light from Earth. 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 / Bridgeman Images
PIX4568246: Open cluster NGC 4755 - Jewel Box - The Jewel Box star cluster - The NGC 4755 cluster is located in the constellation of the Southern Cross at a distance of 6400 years - light from Earth. The bright orange star on the top right is Kappa Crucis, a supergiant red star. This cluster contains about fifty stars formed about 16 million years ago. This close-up of the center of the cluster was obtained with the Hubble Space Telescope. This image is a “” close - up 'view from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope of NGC 4755, or the Jewel Box cluster. Several very bright, pale blue supergiant stars, a solitary ruby - red supergiant and a variety of other brilliantly coloured stars are visible in the image, as well as many much fainter ones, often with intriguing colours. The huge variety in brightness exists because the brighter stars are 15 to 20 times the mass of the Sun, while the dimmest stars are less than half the mass of the Sun. This is the first image of an open galactic cluster with imaging extending from the far ultraviolet to the near - infrared. NGC 4755 (Caldwell 94) is called the Jewel Box, based on John Herschel's comment in the 1830's that it looked like a superb piece of jewelry. There are about 50 stars in this cluster which formed some 14 million years ago. Most of the cluster members are blue giants which in a few million years will exhaust their hydrogen fuel and become red giants on their way to a cataclysmic end as supernovae. One red giant can already be seen at the center of the cluster (top right) / Bridgeman Images
PIX4568295: Open cluster NGC 4755 - Jewel Box - The Jewel Box cluster, NGC 4755 - NGC 4755 is located in the constellation of the Southern Cross at a distance of 7800 years - light from Earth. The bright orange star is Kappa Crucis, a supergiant red star. This famous group of young bright stars is an open cluster some 7800 light years from the Sun. It was named the Jewel Box from its description by Sir John Herschel as 'a casket of variously coloured precious stones', which refers to its appearance in the telescope. The bright orange star is kappa Crucis, and it contrasts strongly against its predominantly blue, hot companions. Kappa Cru is a very large, (hence very luminous) quite young star in its red supergiant stage, which paradoxically indicates that its life is drawing to a close. The cluster is looks like a star to the unaided eye and appears close to the eastern - most star of the Southern Cross, so is only visible from southern latitude / Bridgeman Images
PIX4568402: Open cluster M26 in the ECU of Sobieski - Open cluster M26 in Scutum - M26 (NGC 6694) is located about 5000 years - light from Earth and is about 90 million years old. M26 is an open cluster in the constellation Scutum. A fairly tight cluster, in this deep image it has to compete with a very populous background of Milky Way stars. It is about 5000 light - years away and around 90 million years old / Bridgeman Images
PIX4568454: Open cluster M11 in the ECU of Sobieski - M11 open cluster in Scutum - M11 (NGC 6705) is a cluster of about 3000 stars. Image obtained by Siding Spring Clusters of bright blue stars like M11 are found scattered among the spiral arms of the Milky Way and other galaxies like it. They are a clear sign that star formation is active, because such clusters are usually very young and short lived. The stars in M11 all formed from the same material and at about the same time, a few million years ago. In 100 million years or so, all the brightest stars in the group will have evolved into cool supergiants and exploded as supernovae, leaving behind large numbers of low mass, relatively faint stars whose lives will be much longer and whose end will be much less dramatic. Located in the constellation of Scutum, it is sometimes mistaken for a loose globular cluster. M11 is also called the “” Wild Duck Cluster”” because of it's resemblance to a flight of wild ducks when viewed in a telescope. M11, with an overall brightness of magnitude 5.8, contains as many as 500 stars ranging from 8th magnitude down to 14th magnitude / Bridgeman Images
PIX4568744: Hyades and Pleiades open clusters - Hyades and Pleiades open clusters - The Hyades cluster, on the left, with the brilliant star Aldebaran. On the right, the Pleiades cluster. These two clusters belong to the constellation of the Taurus of which Aldebaran is the brightest star; it is a red giante. The Pleiades is a relatively nearby open cluster, which according to new data from the Hipparcos satellite is located at a distance of 370 light years. The Hyades (at left) is another open cluster located even closer at a distance of 153 light years / Bridgeman Images
PIX4568790: Pleiades open cluster - The Pleiades star cluster - The Pleiades star cluster (M45) contains about 500 stars formed 100 million years ago. It is located 440 light years from Earth, in the constellation Taurus. M45 is an open cluster dominated by hot blue stars formed within the last 100 million years. It is located in the constellation of Taurus at about 440 light - years from Earth / Bridgeman Images
PIX4568904: Hyad cluster - Mel 25 - The Hyades cluster in Taurus - Mel 25, the Hyades, is an open cluster visible to the naked eye in the constellation Taurus. The red giant star Aldebaran is the brightest star in the image. On the left, the small open cluster NGC 1647. The Hyades is a beautiful open cluster in Taurus that is easily visible to the unaided - eye. Brilliant Aldeberan, a 0.9 magnitude red giant star, dominates the cluster which is located about 153 light years away. Smaller open cluster NGC 1647 is on the left in the image, some 45 acr minutes in diameter at magnitude 6.4 / Bridgeman Images
ITR4561887: Vault with Corinthian columns of LaChapelle royale began by Jules Hardouin Mansart (1646-1708) in 1699 and completed in 1710 by Robert De Cotte (1656-1735).Chateau de Versailles (Les Yvelines). Principal architects: Louis Le Vau (1612-1670) and Jules Hardouin Mansart (1646-1708), 1660-1700. / Bridgeman Images
ITR4561943: The dairy in the hamlet of the Queen in the northwest part of the garden of the Peer Trianon, built in 1782 by Hubert Robert (1733-1808). Chateau de Versailles (Les Yvelines), 1660-1700. Principal architects: Louis Le Vau (1612-1670) and Jules Hardouin Mansart (1646-1708). / Bridgeman Images
ITR4562119: Le Potager du Roi is a historical garden created at the request of Louis XIV (1638-1715) by Jean Baptiste de la Quintinie (1624-1698) in 1678. Chateau de Versailles (Les Yvelines), 1660-1700. Gardens of Andre Le Notre (1613-1700) and principal architects: Louis Le Vau (1612-1670) and Jules Hardouin Mansart (1646-1708). / Bridgeman Images