NGC 7142 and NGC 7129

NGC 7142 and NGC 7129 in Cepheus.  The old and the new.

NGC 7142 (upper left) is an open cluster 6200 light years away and partially obscured by an interstellar cloud.  It is considered to be a very old open cluster with some stares aged at 3 billion years.  Spiral galaxies in the distant background field of the cluster include PGC 97216, PGC 168098 and PGC 168082.

NGC 7129 (lower right) is a star-forming region with more than 130 young stars forming an open cluster 330 light years distant.  The stars are less than 1 million years old and illuminate dust in the associated nebula.  The small red crescents in the region are known as Herbig-Haro objects (patches of nebulosity associated with newborn stars where ejected, partially ionized gas collides with nearby clouds of gas and dust at several hundred kilometers per second.)