Looking at it at first, one would not think that the image is something special. But it is. Pictured at left is the image of Cluster FSR 1735, the newest star family in our Galactic Plane.

FSR 1735 is a star cluster found in the same slice of space where our Galaxy, the Milky Way, is located. It is a rich, beautiful and circular gathering of about 100,000 stars. We have but one star in our own neighborhood - the Sun, in the Solar System.

FSR however has a mass estimated to be 65,000 times that of the sun, and is about seven light years wide. Imagine how much stronger Superman would be if he ever happens to hang out at this star cluster. But tough luck - this star family is 30,000 light years away.

Scientists have been trying to find new star clusters in the Galactic Plane. It's been a tough duty for them, but using three different near-infrared filters, they've managed to produce images that are 10 times deeper and much more precise than those that they took with Two Micron All Sky Survey (2MASS).

So far, the study team is happy about discovering this new star family. Globular Clusters such as the FSR 1735 are believed to have some of the oldest materials in the Universe, and may have witnessed some of the earliest events in the history of Space. Studying them may finally bring us closer to knowing where and how (and why?) the Universe originated.