NASA Astronomy Picture of the Day
Open Star Clusters M35 and NGC 2158
Some images begin long before the shutter opens. This one began with a question: when two different ages of the universe appear side by side, what does time actually look like?
M35 and NGC 2158 share the same patch of sky in Gemini, yet they are separated by nearly ten thousand light-years — and a billion years of stellar history. M35 blazes with the blue-white fire of young stars, born a mere 150 million years ago; NGC 2158 gathers quietly in the background, its golden glow already more than two billion years old.
Taken with the Lulin-ASIAA Telescope (LATTE) in Taiwan, this image was selected as NASA's Astronomy Picture of the Day (APOD) on February 27, 2025 — a single frame in which the universe conceals more history than language can hold.