Celestial hemisphere:  Northern  ·  Constellation: Taurus (Tau)  ·  Contains:  Maia nebula  ·  Merope nebula  ·  NGC 1432  ·  NGC 1435  ·  The star 18Tau  ·  The star Atlas (27Tau)  ·  The star Celaeno (16Tau)  ·  The star Electra (17Tau)  ·  The star Merope (23Tau)  ·  The star Pleione (28Tau)  ·  The star Sterope I (21Tau)  ·  The star Taygeta (19Tau)  ·  The star ηTau
NGC 1432/35 - M45 - The Pleiades, Yannic Delisle
NGC 1432/35 - M45 - The Pleiades
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NGC 1432/35 - M45 - The Pleiades

NGC 1432/35 - M45 - The Pleiades, Yannic Delisle
NGC 1432/35 - M45 - The Pleiades
Powered byPixInsight

NGC 1432/35 - M45 - The Pleiades

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Description

The Pleiades, also known as the Seven Sisters and Messier 45, are an open star cluster containing middle-aged, hot B-type stars located in the constellation of Taurus. It is among the star clusters nearest Earth and is the cluster most obvious to the naked eye in the night sky. The nine brightest stars of the Pleiades are named for the Seven Sisters of Greek mythology: Sterope, Merope, Electra, Maia, Taygeta, Celaeno, and Alcyone, along with their parents Atlas and Pleione.

The cluster core radius is about 8 light-years and tidal radius is about 43 light-years. The cluster contains over 1,000 statistically confirmed members, although this figure excludes unresolved binary stars. Its light is dominated by young, hot blue stars, up to 14 of which can be seen with the naked eye depending on local observing conditions. The arrangement of the brightest stars is somewhat similar to Ursa Major and Ursa Minor. The total mass contained in the cluster is estimated to be about 800 solar masses and is dominated by fainter and redder stars.

Recent results using very-long-baseline interferometry (VLBI) (August 2014) and preliminary solutions using Gaia Data Release 1 (September 2016) and Gaia Data Release 2 (August 2018), determine distances of 136.2 ± 1.2 pc, 134 ± 6 pc and 136.2 ± 5.0 pc, respectively. (~444 ly)

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NGC 1432/35 - M45 - The Pleiades, Yannic Delisle