Star cluster
FSR 1044
Open star cluster · 1.3 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 | Canis Minor |
| Distance | 2,398 pc (7.8 thousand ly) |
| Age | 1.3 billion years |
| Member stars (MWSC) | 30 |
| Reddening E(B−V) | 0.31 |
| Source | MWSC (Kharchenko et al. 2013) |
| Right ascension (J2000) | 7h 52m 04.8s |
| Declination (J2000) | +12° 10′ 23″ |
In the sky
Visible from the whole Northern Hemisphere and south to latitude 78° S. North of latitude 78° N it never sets. It stands highest at midnight in January, the best time to observe it.
Through a telescope from Earth
Light's journey
The light you see tonight set out 7,821 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 139 million years.