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Pleiades
Pleiades A color-composite image of the Pleiades from the Digitized Sky Survey Credit: NASA/ESA/AURA/Caltech Observation data (J2000 epoch) Constellation Taurus Right ascension 3h 47m 24s Declination +24° 7' Distance 391–456 ly (120–140 pc) Apparent magnitude (V) 1.6 Apparent dimensions (V) 110' (arcmin.) Physical characteristics Other designations M45, Seven Sisters, Melotte 22 See also: Open cluster, List of open clusters In astronomy, the Pleiades, or Seven Sisters (Messier object 45 or M45), is an open star cluster containing middle-aged hot B-type stars located in the constellation of Taurus. It is among the nearest star clusters to Earth and is the cluster most obvious to the naked eye in the night sky. Pleiades has several meanings in different cultures and traditions.The cluster is dominated by hot blue and extremely luminous stars that have formed within the last 100 million years. Dust that forms a faint reflection nebulosity around the brightest stars was thought at first to be left over from the formation of the cluster (hence the alternate name Maia Nebula after the star Maia), but is now known to be an unrelated dust cloud in the interstellar medium that the stars are currently passing through. Astronomers estimate that the cluster will survive for about another 250 million years, after which it will disperse due to gravitational interactions with its galactic neighborhood. Cite error: There are tags on this page, but the references will not show without a {{Reflist}} template or a tag; see the help page.
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