Star cluster
IC 2581
Open star cluster · 21 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 | Carina |
| Distance | 2,221 pc (7.2 thousand ly) |
| Age | 21 million years |
| Member stars (MWSC) | 282 |
| Reddening E(B−V) | 0.52 |
| Metallicity [Fe/H] | -0.34 |
| Source | MWSC (Kharchenko et al. 2013) |
| Right ascension (J2000) | 10h 27m 36.0s |
| Declination (J2000) | −57° 38′ 24″ |
In the sky
Visible from the whole Southern Hemisphere and north to latitude 32° N. South of latitude 32° S it never sets. It stands highest at midnight in February, the best time to observe it.
Through a telescope from Earth
Light's journey
The light you see tonight set out 7,244 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 129 million years.