Star cluster
ESO 518-03
Open star cluster · 1.5 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 | Scorpius |
| Distance | 1,266 pc (4.1 thousand ly) |
| Age | 1.5 billion years |
| Member stars (MWSC) | 239 |
| Reddening E(B−V) | 0.37 |
| Source | MWSC (Kharchenko et al. 2013) |
| Right ascension (J2000) | 16h 47m 06.0s |
| Declination (J2000) | −25° 48′ 18″ |
In the sky
Visible from the whole Southern Hemisphere and north to latitude 64° N. South of latitude 64° S it never sets. It stands highest at midnight in May, the best time to observe it.
Through a telescope from Earth
Light's journey
The light you see tonight set out 4,129 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 73 million years.