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Postcard Images

Ghostly reflections in the Pleiades

6 August 2003

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This image shows a dark interstellar cloud ravaged by the passage of Merope, one of the brightest stars in the Pleiades star cluster. Just as a torch beam bounces off the wall of a cave, the star is reflecting light from the surface of pitch-black clouds of cold gas laced with dust. As the nebula approaches Merope, the strong starlight shining on the dust decelerates the dust particles. The nebula is drifting through the cluster at a relative speed of roughly 11 kilometres per second.

Credits: NASA and The Hubble Heritage Team (STScI/AURA), George Herbig and Theodore Simon (University of Hawaii)

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