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Pleiades is a moving cluster of stars that has collided with a molecular cloud. Recent data suggests that the collision may have been triggered by a supernova blast or density wave some 30 million years ago. The Pleiades travels through space at about 40 kilometres per second & the relative tightness of the cluster is indicative of its young age as the member stars were formed some 100 million years ago and will probably travel together through space for another 250 million years before the gravity of the Milky Way breaks up the cluster into individual field stars. This is a companion shot to the famous Hubble scope image but this version is a series of long ground based exposures.

Credit: Robert Gendler.