Messier 11 is known as the Wild Duck Cluster thanks to a bright "V" formation.
ESA/Hubble & NASA, P. Dobbie et al.
If the Hubble Space Telescope has a favorite NES game, it's probably Duck Hunt.
NASA and the European Space Agency shared a Hubble view this week of a star-studded gathering spot nicknamed the Wild Duck Cluster, and it's very glittery.
The cluster's more official name is Messier 11, but it gets its waterfowl moniker from a roughly V-shaped series of bright stars that resemble a group of migratory birds flying overhead.
Messier 11 formed about 220 million years ago and is classified as an open cluster.
"Open clusters tend to contain fewer and younger stars than their more compact globular cousins," ESA explains. That also means the stars in an open cluster can more easily be pulled apart, which puts a damper on the future for the Wild Duck Cluster.
"Messier 11 is likely to disperse iRead More – Source
Messier 11 is known as the Wild Duck Cluster thanks to a bright "V" formation.
ESA/Hubble & NASA, P. Dobbie et al.
If the Hubble Space Telescope has a favorite NES game, it's probably Duck Hunt.
NASA and the European Space Agency shared a Hubble view this week of a star-studded gathering spot nicknamed the Wild Duck Cluster, and it's very glittery.
The cluster's more official name is Messier 11, but it gets its waterfowl moniker from a roughly V-shaped series of bright stars that resemble a group of migratory birds flying overhead.
Messier 11 formed about 220 million years ago and is classified as an open cluster.
"Open clusters tend to contain fewer and younger stars than their more compact globular cousins," ESA explains. That also means the stars in an open cluster can more easily be pulled apart, which puts a damper on the future for the Wild Duck Cluster.
"Messier 11 is likely to disperse iRead More – Source
