M46 Open Cluster in constellation of Puppis (Gebhard Maurer)

Celestial hemisphere: Southern · Constellation: Puppis (Pup) · Contains: 140 Pup · M 46 · NGC 2437 · NGC 2438 · PK231+04.1 · PK231+04.2

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M46 Open Cluster in constellation of Puppis

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M46 Open Cluster in constellation of Puppis

Messier 46, also known as NGC 2437, is an open cluster of stars in the constellation of Puppis. It was discovered by Charles Messier in 1771. Dreyer described it as "very bright, very rich, very large." M46 is about 4,920 light-years away. There are an estimated 500 stars in the cluster with a combined mass of 453 M☉,[2] and it is thought to be some 251.2 million years old.

The cluster has a tidal radius of 37.8 ± 4.6 ly and a core radius of 8.5 ± 1.3 ly. It has a greater spatial extend in the infrared than in visible light, suggesting that the cluster is undergoing some mass segregation with the fainter (redder) stars migrating to a coma region. The fainter stars that extend out to the south and west may form a tidal tail due to a past interaction.

The planetary nebula NGC 2438 appears to lie within the cluster near its northern edge (the faint smudge at the top center of the image), but it is most likely unrelated since it does not share the cluster's radial velocity. It is an example of a superimposed pair possibly similar to that of NGC 2818. On the other hand, the illuminating star of the bipolar Calabash Nebula shares the radial velocity and proper motion of Messier 46, and is at the same distance, so is a bona fide member of the open cluster.

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Distribution of astrophotographers

This table shows the number of distinct astrophotographers who have been assigned and IOTD/TP award compared to the total number of images awarded.
	Distinct awarded users	Total awarded images
Image of the day
Top picks
Top pick nominations

Distribution of subject types

This table shows the distribution of awards per subject type, compared to the popularity of images of that subject type.
	Image of the day	Top pick	Top pick nominations	Total submitted
Deep sky
Solar system
Extremely wide field
Star trails
Northern lights
Noctilucent clouds
Landscape

Distribution of data sources

This table shows the distribution of awards per data source, compared to the popularity of images acquired from that data source.
	Image of the day	Top pick	Top pick nominations	Total submitted
Backyard
Traveller
Own remote observatory
Amateur hosting facility
Public amaeteur data
Professional, scientific grade data
Mix of multiple sources
Other
Unknown

The “AstroBin Image of the Day and Top Picks”, or IOTD/TP, is a long-running system to promote beautiful, interesting, peculiar, or otherwise amazing astrophotographs, with a focus on technical excellence. Learn more.

Submitted The date and time when you submitted this image for IOTD/TP consideration.	...
Views by Submitters (available since September 19th, 2023) Every image is assigned to 50% of available Submitters. In the event that at least 80% of them don't view the image before its time in the IOTD/TP process expires, it's assigned to the other 50% of Submitters and the process begins anew.
Promotions by Submitters When 3 distinct Submitters promote the image, it moves on to the next stage of the process: evaluation for Top Pick status. This requirement, in addition to anonymization of images and distribution to only a subset of them, prevents biases and ensures that the best images are selected.
Promotions by Reviewers When 3 distinct Reviewers promote the image, it moves on to the next stage of the process: evaluation for IOTD status.
Early dismissal Staff members have a lot of images to inspect on a daily basis, and they can dismiss images if they believe they don't meet the requirements for IOTD/TP selection. If an image is dismissed 5 times, it's removed from the process. This streamlines the process and ensures that any bias present in promotions could be overruled by other staff members.

Status	Advanced success
Started	...
Astrometry.net job	3408160
PixInsight job	HTIFYIUCNYH22AHJIY8SM68LB9O2S6EG
PixInsight queue size	n/a
PixInsight stage	n/a

RA (center)	07h41m34s.200
RA (top/left)	07h40m02s.607
RA (top/right)	07h40m00s.359
RA (bottom/right)	07h43m06s.292
RA (bottom/left)	07h43m07s.602

Dec (center)	-14°46′55″.44
Dec (top/left)	-14°11′16″.86
Dec (top/right)	-15°22′12″.98
Dec (bottom/right)	-15°22′30″.44
Dec (bottom/left)	-14°11′32″.66

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M46 Open Cluster in constellation of Puppis

M46 Open Cluster in constellation of Puppis

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M46 Open Cluster in constellation of Puppis

M46 Open Cluster in constellation of Puppis

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