Putting the jewel box in perspective (composite image): This composite image serves as a still "zoom-in", showing the rich star field in which NGC 4755 nestles and then moving in to the detailed Hubble image of the Kappa Crucis Cluster, or Jewel Box, itself. The range of images begins with a very wide-field view of the sky surrounding NGC 4755. The images then progressively "zoom in" to reveal a "close-up" of the Jewel Box, featuring several very bright, pale blue supergiant stars, a solitary ruby-red supergiant and a variety of other brilliantly coloured stars. The picture on the top left was taken from the ground with a 35-mm camera. The next image is from the Digitized Sky Survey 2, a large digital atlas of the sky. Next is a very sharp image from the Wide Field Imager (WFI) on the MPG/ESO 2.2-metre telescope at ESO's La Silla Observatory The first image (left) on the bottom row was taken by the FORS1 instrument on the ESO Very Large Telescope at ESO's Paranal Observatory. The last image (at bottom right) is the one taken by the legendary (and now retired) WFPC2 aboard Hubble.

Name: NGC 4755
Type: Milky Way : Star : Grouping : Cluster : Open
Category: Star Clusters
Distance: 6500 light years
Release date: 29 October 2009, 10:00
Credit: ESO, NASA/ESA, Digitized Sky Survey 2 and Jesús Maíz Apellániz (Instituto de Astrofísica de Andalucía, Spain)

Wide-field image of the constellation Crux (ground-based image): The Jewel Box is shown just right of centre, above the dark nebula called the Coal Sack in this picture of the southern sky. The picture was taken with a small ground-based camera.

Name: NGC 4755
Type: Milky Way : Star : Grouping : Cluster : Open
Category: Star Clusters
Distance: 6500 light years
Release date: 29 October 2009, 10:00
Credit: A. Fujii

Hubble looks at sideways NGC 4710 (crop): Still an astrophysical mystery, the evolution of the bulges in spiral galaxies led astronomers to the edge-on galaxy NGC 4710. When staring directly at the centre of the galaxy, one can detect a faint, ethereal "X"-shaped structure. Such a feature, which astronomers call a "boxy" or "peanut-shaped" bulge, is due to the vertical motions of the stars in the galaxy's bar and is only evident when the galaxy is seen edge-on. This curiously shaped puff is often observed in spiral galaxies with small bulges and open arms, but is less common in spirals with arms tightly wrapped around a more prominent bulge, such as NGC 4710.

Name: NGC 4710
Type: Local Universe : Galaxy : Type : SpiralLocal Universe : Galaxy : Component : Bulge
Category: Galaxies
Constellation: Coma Berenices
Distance: 60 million light years
Release date: 18 November 2009, 12:00
Credit: NASA & ESA

Hubble looks at sideways NGC 4710 (full): Still an astrophysical mystery, the evolution of the bulges in spiral galaxies led astronomers to the edge-on galaxy NGC 4710. When staring directly at the centre of the galaxy, one can detect a faint, ethereal "X'-shaped structure. Such a feature, which astronomers call a "boxy" or "peanut-shaped" bulge, is due to the vertical motions of the stars in the galaxy's bar and is only evident when the galaxy is seen edge-on. This curiously shaped puff is often observed in spiral galaxies with small bulges and open arms, but is less common in spirals with arms tightly wrapped around a more prominent bulge, such as NGC 4710.

Name: NGC 4710
Type: Local Universe : Galaxy : Type : SpiralLocal Universe : Galaxy : Component : Bulge
Category: Galaxies
Constellation: Coma Berenices
Distance: 60 million light years
Release date: 18 November 2009, 12:00
Credit: NASA & ESA