This page describes an image The Wild Duck Open Cluster
Download File ( image 472.01 kB)
Image caption:
This image shows the Wild Duck Cluster (also known as Messier 11 or M11), a bright grouping of stars that forms what astronomers call an open cluster in our Milky Way galaxy. Open clusters are collections of stars that were born from the same giant cloud of gas and dust and are still loosely held together by gravity. Most open clusters will slowly fall apart over hundreds of millions of years are they orbit through the galaxy. In this view, hundreds of stars appear close together against the dark background of space, with many shining at different brightnesses depending on their size and temperature.
The Wild Duck Cluster lies about 6,000 light-years from Earth and is around 300 million years old. Because the stars in an open cluster share a common origin, astronomers can use them as laboratories for testing theories on stellar evolution and behaviour.
Image credit: NASA/JPL Credit Link
Related glossary terms:
Messier Object
, Open Cluster
Image license: Public Domain Public Domain icons
The media file captions presented on the OAE website were written, translated and reviewed by a collective effort from the OAE, the OAE Centers and Nodes, the OAE National Astronomy Education Coordinators (NAECs) and other volunteers. You can find a full list of credits for our translation project here. All media file captions are released under a Creative Commons CC BY-4.0 license and should be credited to "IAU OAE". The media files themselves may have different licenses (see above) and should be credited as listed above under "credit".
If you notice a factual error in this caption or an error in any of its translations then please get in touch.
