Annotated image of the pleiades and HST field of view

The brilliant stars seen in this image are members of the popular open star cluster known as the Pleiades, or Seven Sisters. The Hubble Space Telescope's Fine Guidance Sensors refined the distance to the Pleiades at about 440 light-years. The Fine Guidance Sensors are at the periphery of Hubble's field-of-view. They trace a circumference that is approximately the angular size of the Moon on the sky. They are overlaid on this image to give a scale to Hubble's very narrow view on the heavens.

Credit:

NASA, ESA and AURA/Caltech

About the Image

NASA press release
Id:opo0420b
Type:Collage
Release date:1 June 2004, 15:00
Size:800 x 576 px

About the Object

Name:M 45, Messier 45, Pleiades
Type:Milky Way : Star : Grouping : Cluster : Open
Distance:450 light years
Category:Illustrations
Stars

Image Formats

r.titleLarge JPEG
122.5 KB
r.titleScreensize JPEG
208.4 KB

Colours & filters

BandTelescope
Hubble Space Telescope
FGS

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