Star cluster
ESO 021-06
Open star cluster · 3.2 billion 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 | Apus |
| Distance | 2,473 pc (8.1 thousand ly) |
| Age | 3.2 billion years |
| Member stars (MWSC) | 89 |
| Reddening E(B−V) | 0.10 |
| Source | MWSC (Kharchenko et al. 2013) |
| Right ascension (J2000) | 14h 15m 51.8s |
| Declination (J2000) | −78° 30′ 54″ |
In the sky
Visible from the whole Southern Hemisphere and north to latitude 11° N. South of latitude 11° S it never sets.
Through a telescope from Earth
Light's journey
The light you see tonight set out 8,066 years ago. At that time the first farming villages were being founded; there was no writing yet. At the speed of Voyager 1, the fastest craft leaving the Solar System (16.9 km per second), the trip would take 143 million years.