Red, white and blue stars cluster in festive cosmic portrait

A cluster of blue and white stars glows vividly against the red hydrogen gas of their surrounding stellar birthplace in a new cosmic portrait taken at the European Southern Observatory’s (ESO) La Silla Observatory in Chile. Reminiscent of the colors in the American flag, and released just in time for America’s Independence Day on July 4, the image shows open star cluster NGC 2367 and the surrounding hydrogen gas. These objects are embedded in a supershell — an enormous expanding structure out at the edge of the Milky Way. The stars of NGC 2367 are young and hot, and shine with a brilliant blue light. However, this group won’t be together long, comparatively speaking: The pull of other clusters and gas nearby will tear them apart over the next few hundred million years.

Science