During the 18th century, French astronomer Charles Messier compiled a list of over 100 cosmic objects that might fool fellow comet hunters into thinking they had discovered new comets. In the 1980s, an Englishman named Sir Patrick Moore produced an additional list to highlight more cosmic wonders visible to amateur astronomers. Unlike the Messier catalog, which only features objects that were visible from Charles Messier’s viewing location in Europe, Moore’s Caldwell catalog includes celestial bodies that are found in both the northern and southern skies. The catalog consists of 46 star clusters, 35 galaxies and 28 nebulas. Moore intentionally avoided including any of the Messier objects in his catalog, hoping to expand his fellow amateur astronomers’ cosmic horizons. From nearby clouds of gas and dust that are left over from dying stars to remote galaxies that formed billions of years ago, the Caldwell catalog is brimming with surprising celestial treats.
This loose collections of stars, known as an open star cluster, is image 100 of the catalog. Caldwell 100 (also called Collinder 249) is an open star cluster that’s embedded within a large nebula (named IC 2944) about 6,000 light-years away from Earth. The reddish glow of hydrogen gas surrounding the cluster is typical of emission nebulas found in massive star-forming regions. This Hubble image, taken in visible light using the Wide Field and Planetary Camera 2, shows a small portion of this region.
Image Credit: NASA and the Hubble Heritage Team (STScI/AURA); Acknowledgment: Bo Reipurth (University of Hawaii)
Last Updated: Dec. 30, 2019
Editor: Yvette Smith
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