Messier 7 (aka M7 or Ptolemy’s Cluster) is an open cluster of stars in the constellation of Scorpius. The cluster is visible to the naked eye, close to the “stinger” of Scorpius.
M7 has been known since antiquity; it was first recorded by the 1st-century Greek-Roman astronomer Ptolemy, who described it as a nebula in AD 130. Italian astronomer Giovanni Batista Hodierna observed it in the mid 17th-century and counted 30 stars in it. In 1764, French astronomer Charles Messier catalogued the cluster as the seventh member in his list of comet-like objects. This image was recently taken by the 2.2-metre ESO telescope in Chile.
Image Credit: ESO
A newly formed star lights up the surrounding gas and dust clouds like a streetlight in enveloping fog, creating reflection nebula IC 2631. The glowing region is the reflection nebula known as IC 2631. These nebulae are clouds of cosmic dust that reflect light from a nearby star into space. IC 2631 is the brightest nebula in the Chamaeleon Complex, a large region of such clouds with numerous newborn and still-forming protostars. The complex is around 500 light-years away in the southern constellation of Chameleon. IC 2631 is illuminated by one of the youngest, most massive, and brightest stars in its region. This neighborhood is full of star-making material which form dark nebulae such as the dark areas above and below IC 2631 in this picture. Dark nebulae are so densely filled with gas and dust that they block background starlight.
NGC 4565 is sometimes called the Needle Galaxy. It’s an edge-on spiral galaxy located about 30 million light-years away in the constellation Coma Berenices (Berenice’s Hair). Its bright yellowish central bulge juts out above impressive dust lanes. Its shape suggested that it is a barred spiral galaxy, and Spitzer Space Telescope data confirmed the presence of a central bar.
