Celestial hemisphere:  Northern  ·  Constellation: Taurus (Tau)  ·  Contains:  12.06  ·  16 Tau  ·  17 Tau  ·  18 Tau  ·  19 Tau)  ·  19 q Tau  ·  20 Tau  ·  21 Tau  ·  22 Tau  ·  23 Tau  ·  24 Tau  ·  25 Tau)  ·  25 eta Tau  ·  26 Tau  ·  27 Tau  ·  28 Tau  ·  409 Aspasia  ·  Alcyone  ·  Asterope  ·  Atlas  ·  Barnard's Merope Nebula  ·  Celaeno  ·  Electra  ·  HD23061  ·  HD23156  ·  HD23157  ·  HD23158  ·  HD23194  ·  HD23246  ·  HD23247  ·  And 79 more.
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M45 - The Pleiades in Taurus, Fran D.
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M45 - The Pleiades in Taurus

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M45 - The Pleiades in Taurus, Fran D.
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M45 - The Pleiades in Taurus

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Description

One of the most recognized sights in the autumn/winter sky, M45 is an open star cluster in the constellation Taurus. The cluster had many names in antiquity, today we refer to the name of  Greek origin the Pleiades (the Seven Sisters). The Seven Sisters is one of our closest star clusters, thought to be ~430 LY away. The blue nebulosity is caused by starlight reflections from dust; however this dust is not the medium from which the stars were formed. The Pleiades cluster just happens to be passing through an interstellar region that contains a great deal of dust. The Pleiades contains over 1000 stars, all which formed approximately 100 million years ago.

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M45 - The Pleiades in Taurus, Fran D.