Celestial hemisphere:  Northern  ·  Constellation: Cancer (Cnc)  ·  Contains:  Beehive cluster  ·  M 44  ·  NGC 2632  ·  Praesepe
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M44, riot1013
M44
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M44

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M44, riot1013
M44
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M44

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Description

The Beehive Cluster is an open cluster in the constellation Cancer. It is one of the nearest open clusters to Earth, containing a larger population of stars than other nearby bright open clusters. Under dark skies, the Beehive Cluster looks like a small nebulous object to the naked eye; as known since ancient times. Classical astronomer Ptolemy described it as "nebulous mass in the breast of Cancer", and it was among the first objects that Galileo studied with his telescope.

The distance to M44 is often cited to be between 160 and 187 parsecs (520–610 light years) but the revised Hipparcos parallaxes (2009) for Praesepe members and the latest infrared color-magnitude diagram favors an analogous distance of 182 pc. There are better age estimates of around 600 million years, equivalent to about 625 million years, for the Hyades. The diameter of the bright inner cluster core is about 7.0 parsecs (23 light years).

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M44, riot1013