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What is the Kappis Crucis Cluster?
What were the discoveries by Hubble relating to the Kappis Crucis Cluster?
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Kappa Crucis, or NGC 4755, was dubbed "The Jewel Box". This open cluster of just over 100 stars including a red super-giant and blue stars, is about 10 million years old.
"This Jewel Box lies about 7500 light-years away, so the light that we see today was emitted from the cluster before even the Great Pyramids in Egypt were built. The Jewel Box... spans about 20 light-years, and can be seen with binoculars towards the southern constellation of Crux." - http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap010618.html .
While the bright photo in the link above was recently taken by the Hubble Space Telescope, the Jewel Box was already imaged before by the HiRISE camera on the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter in 2005 - http://marsprogram.jpl.nasa.gov/mro/gallery/cruise/jewel_box.html .
A collection of stunning photos from both Hubble and the ground-based 2.2 m Very Large Telescope at La Silla observatory are shown at http://www.universetoday.com/2009/10/29/telescopes-open-up-jewely-box/ .
"This Jewel Box lies about 7500 light-years away, so the light that we see today was emitted from the cluster before even the Great Pyramids in Egypt were built. The Jewel Box... spans about 20 light-years, and can be seen with binoculars towards the southern constellation of Crux." - http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap010618.html .
While the bright photo in the link above was recently taken by the Hubble Space Telescope, the Jewel Box was already imaged before by the HiRISE camera on the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter in 2005 - http://marsprogram.jpl.nasa.gov/mro/gallery/cruise/jewel_box.html .
A collection of stunning photos from both Hubble and the ground-based 2.2 m Very Large Telescope at La Silla observatory are shown at http://www.universetoday.com/2009/10/29/telescopes-open-up-jewely-box/ .
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voted helpful: davepamn
Why is the "The Jewel Box" cluster discovery gain so much publicity?
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I imagine that's due to how impressive the Hubble and VLT photos are. Whereas the 2005 image is quite unimpressive, these recent ones are quite striking. Further, with the recent Hubble servicing mission, and the upcoming decommissioning of the venerable space telescope, such images become so much more compelling.
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I understand the cluster has about 100 stars. How big is the cluster compared to other clusters?
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The cluster is about 20 light years across which is fairly small. Some clusters are many thousands of light years across or more.
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