Star cluster
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Open star cluster · 17 million years
An open cluster of stars born together from the same gas cloud in the Milky Way’s disc; the Galaxy’s tidal forces will disperse it within a few hundred million years. Position, distance, age and member count come from the MWSC catalogue; the total brightness is roughly estimated from the member count.
| Type | Star cluster |
|---|---|
| Constellation | Cygnus |
| Distance | 1,142 pc (3.7 thousand ly) |
| Age | 17 million years |
| Member stars (MWSC) | 140 |
| Reddening E(B−V) | 0.36 |
| Source | MWSC (Kharchenko et al. 2013) |
| Right ascension (J2000) | 20h 09m 16.2s |
| Declination (J2000) | +35° 28′ 48″ |
In the sky
Visible from the whole Northern Hemisphere and south to latitude 55° S. North of latitude 55° N it never sets. It stands highest at midnight in July, the best time to observe it.
Through a telescope from Earth
Light's journey
The light you see tonight set out around 1700 BC. At the speed of Voyager 1, the fastest craft leaving the Solar System (16.9 km per second), the trip would take 66 million years.