Jun 10
The Critter Cluster, M93 // Willem Jan Drijfhout
seen from Germany
seen from Austria
seen from Spain
seen from Germany
seen from Austria
seen from China
seen from United States
seen from Russia
seen from Austria
seen from Austria
seen from Austria
seen from United States
seen from Austria
seen from Russia
seen from United States
seen from United States
seen from Sweden
seen from China
seen from United States
seen from United States
The Critter Cluster, M93 // Willem Jan Drijfhout
The Critter Cluster, M93 // Jim Vaughan
The Critter Cluster, M93 // Fernando Oliveira de Menezes
M93 // Alex Woronow
The Critter Cluster, M93 // Jochen Maes
A beautiful open cluster, the Critter Cluster is about 3,380 light years from the Earth and contains a few hundred stars. This was an original discovery by Messier in 1781. Caroline Herschel (1750-1848), thinking it had not yet been discovered by Messier, independently discovered it again in 1783.
As for the "critter" it is supposed to resemble? Some observers remark that it has the shape of a starfish! What do you see?
Messier 93 - Open Cluster in Puppis
M93 was discovered by Charles Messier in 1781. It is an open cluster, which means it is a diffuse collection of young stars, only a few hundred million years old. Some say it looks like a starfish, some a butterfly. I think it just looks like a bunch of stars!
Top: Wide-Field - Palomar/Caltech
Bottom: Close-Up - 2MASS/Caltech