Celestial hemisphere:  Northern  ·  Constellation: Taurus (Tau)  ·  Contains:  19 Tau)  ·  25 Tau)  ·  Barnard's Merope Nebula  ·  IC 349  ·  Maia Nebula  ·  Merope Nebula  ·  NGC 1432  ·  NGC 1435  ·  Sterope I (21 Tau)  ·  The star 18 Tau  ·  The star Alcyone (η Tau  ·  The star Asterope  ·  The star Atlas (27 Tau)  ·  The star Celaeno (16 Tau)  ·  The star Electra (17 Tau)  ·  The star Merope (23 Tau)  ·  The star Pleione (28 Tau)  ·  The star Sterope II (22 Tau)  ·  The star Taygeta (q Tau
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M45, John Bozeman
M45
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M45

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M45, John Bozeman
M45
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M45

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Description

The Pleiades, also known as The Seven Sisters, Messier 45 and other names by different cultures, is an asterism and an open star cluster containing middle-aged, hot B-type stars in the north-west of the constellation Taurus. At a distance of about 444 light years, it is among the nearest star clusters to Earth. It is the nearest Messier object to Earth, and is the most obvious cluster to the naked eye in the night sky. It is also observed to house the reflection nebula NGC 1432, an HII region. The cluster is dominated by hot blue luminous stars that have formed within the last 100 million years. Reflection nebulae around the brightest stars were once thought to be left over material from their formation, but are now considered likely to be an unrelated dust cloud in the interstellar medium through which the stars are currently passing. This dust cloud is estimated to be moving at a speed of approximately 18 km/s relative to the stars in the cluster.

Color Mapped:

Red - 22 micron IR
Green - 12 micron IR
Blue - 3.4 micron IR
Cyan - 4.6 micron IR

 Processed with FITS Liberator, PixInsight and Photoshop 2023.

This publication makes use of data products from the Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer, which is a joint project of the University of California, Los Angeles, and the Jet Propulsion Laboratory/California Institute of Technology, funded by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration.

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M45, John Bozeman