Star cluster
NGC 1662
Open star cluster · 501 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 | Orion |
| Distance | 437 pc (1.4 thousand ly) |
| Age | 501 million years |
| Member stars (MWSC) | 152 |
| Reddening E(B−V) | 0.30 |
| Metallicity [Fe/H] | -0.10 |
| Source | MWSC (Kharchenko et al. 2013) |
| Right ascension (J2000) | 4h 48m 27.0s |
| Declination (J2000) | +10° 55′ 30″ |
In the sky
Visible from the whole Northern Hemisphere and south to latitude 79° S. North of latitude 79° N it never sets. It stands highest at midnight in November, the best time to observe it.
Through a telescope from Earth
Light's journey
The light you see tonight set out around the year 601. At the speed of Voyager 1, the fastest craft leaving the Solar System (16.9 km per second), the trip would take 25 million years.