Astronomy Picture of the Day

   [1]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 July 19
      [2]The featured image shows the bright blue Pleiades star cluster
   behind Half Dome, a large circular rock formation that appears dark but
      with bright grooves. Please see the explanation for more detailed
                                information.

                           Pleiades over Half Dome
               Image Credit & Copyright: [3]Dheera Venkatraman

   Explanation: Stars come in bunches. The most famous bunch of stars on
   the sky is [4]the Pleiades, a [5]bright cluster that can be easily seen
   with the [6]unaided eye. The Pleiades lies only about 450 [7]light
   years away, formed about 100 million years ago, and will likely last
   about another 250 million years. [8]Our Sun was likely born in a
   [9]star cluster, but now, being about 4.5 billion years old, its
   [10]stellar birth companions have long since dispersed. The
   [11]Pleiades star cluster is pictured over [12]Half Dome, a famous rock
   structure in [13]Yosemite National Park in [14]California, [15]USA. The
   [16]featured image is a composite of 28 foreground exposures and 174
   images of the stellar background, all taken from the same location and
   by the same camera on the same night in October 2019. After
   [17]calculating the timing of a future juxtaposition of the
   [18]Pleiades and [19]Half Dome, the astrophotrographer was unexpectedly
   rewarded by an [20]electrical blackout, making the [21]background sky
   unusually [22]dark.

                      Tomorrow's picture: webb of ring
     __________________________________________________________________

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    Authors & editors: [34]Robert Nemiroff ([35]MTU) & [36]Jerry Bonnell
                                 ([37]UMCP)
          NASA Official: Phillip Newman [38]Specific rights apply.
              [39]NASA Web Privacy Policy and Important Notices
                A service of: [40]ASD at [41]NASA / [42]GSFC
                           & [43]Michigan Tech. U.

References

   1. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/archivepix.html
   2. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/2207/HalfPleiades_Venkatraman_1365.jpg
   3. https://dheera.net/about
   4. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap211124.html
   5. https://go-astronomy.com/star-clusters.php
   6. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Naked_eye#In_astronomy
   7. https://spaceplace.nasa.gov/light-year/en/
   8. https://solarsystem.nasa.gov/solar-system/sun/in-depth/
   9. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Open_cluster
  10. https://astronomy.com/magazine/ask-astro/2021/05/what-happened-to-the-suns-original-star-cluster
  11. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pleiades
  12. https://youtu.be/mEOkthVDha0
  13. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yosemite_National_Park
  14. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/California
  15. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States
  16. https://dheera.net/photos/calnight/#&gid=1&pid=2
  17. https://media.istockphoto.com/photos/dog-as-financial-work-with-report-pens-and-calculater-on-table-dog-picture-id1165372431?k=20&m=1165372431&s=612x612&w=0&h=R-3PIrplLqu4k4lx6ynWNhW5b10Rt5dLL2rqfWExzxU=
  18. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap220405.html
  19. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Half_Dome
  20. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2019_California_power_shutoffs
  21. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap200408.html
  22. https://www.darksky.org/
  23. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap220718.html
  24. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/archivepix.html
  25. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/lib/apsubmit2015.html
  26. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/lib/aptree.html
  27. https://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/cgi-bin/apod/apod_search
  28. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/calendar/allyears.html
  29. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod.rss
  30. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/lib/edlinks.html
  31. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/lib/about_apod.html
  32. http://asterisk.apod.com/discuss_apod.php?date=220719
  33. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap220720.html
  34. http://www.phy.mtu.edu/faculty/Nemiroff.html
  35. http://www.phy.mtu.edu/
  36. https://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/htmltest/jbonnell/www/bonnell.html
  37. http://www.astro.umd.edu/
  38. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/lib/about_apod.html#srapply
  39. https://www.nasa.gov/about/highlights/HP_Privacy.html
  40. https://astrophysics.gsfc.nasa.gov/
  41. https://www.nasa.gov/
  42. https://www.nasa.gov/centers/goddard/
  43. http://www.mtu.edu/