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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.   
      
                                 2022 February 18   
      
                             Three Clusters in Puppis   
                       Image Credit & Copyright: Dave Doctor   
      
      Explanation: Galactic or open star clusters are young. The swarms of   
      stars are born together near the plane of the Milky Way, but their   
      numbers steadily dwindle as cluster members are ejected by galactic   
      tides and gravitational interactions. Caught in this telescopic frame   
      over three degrees across are three good examples of galactic star   
      clusters, seen toward the southern sky's nautical constellation Puppis.   
      Below and left, M46 is some 5,500 light-years in the distance. Right of   
      center M47 is only 1,600 light-years away and NGC 2423 (top) is about   
      2500 light-years distant. Around 300 million years young M46 contains a   
      few hundred stars in a region about 30 light-years across. Sharp eyes   
      can spot a planetary nebula, NGC 2438, at about 11 o'clock against the   
      M46 cluster stars. But that nebula's central star is billions of years   
      old, and NGC 2438 is likely a foreground object only by chance along   
      the line of sight to youthful M46. Even younger, aged around 80 million   
      years, M47 is a smaller and looser star cluster spanning about 10   
      light-years. Star cluster NGC 2423 is pushing about 750 million years   
      in age though. NGC 2423 is known to harbor an extrasolar planet,   
      detected orbiting one of its red giant stars.   
      
                       Tomorrow's picture: mammals in space   
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          Authors & editors: Robert Nemiroff (MTU) & Jerry Bonnell (UMCP)   
               NASA Official: Phillip Newman Specific rights apply.   
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                                & Michigan Tech. U.   
      
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