New observations of the richly populated star cluster NGC 2420 taken by the refurbished WIYN 0.9-meter telescope at Kitt Peak National Observatory suggest that the cluster contains a multitude of clues about the history and evolution of the Milky Way. NGC 2420 consists of approximately 1,000 stars packed into a roughly spherical volume of space just 30 light-years in diameter. Because all of the stars in a star cluster have similar ages and initial compositions, star clusters can be used as a laboratory to study many different areas of astronomy. Further details of this interesting result can be found in NOAO press release 02-04.
