Star cluster
FSR 0078
Open star cluster · 2.0 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 | Serpens |
| Distance | 2,971 pc (9.7 thousand ly) |
| Age | 2.0 billion years |
| Member stars (MWSC) | 28 |
| Reddening E(B−V) | 1.35 |
| Source | MWSC (Kharchenko et al. 2013) |
| Right ascension (J2000) | 18h 14m 58.9s |
| Declination (J2000) | −3° 09′ 18″ |
In the sky
Visible from the whole Southern Hemisphere and north to latitude 87° N. It stands highest at midnight in June, the best time to observe it.
Through a telescope from Earth
Light's journey
The light you see tonight set out 9,690 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 172 million years.