Star cluster
NGC 1981
Open star cluster · 13 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 | 388 pc (1.3 thousand ly) |
| Age | 13 million years |
| Member stars (MWSC) | 31 |
| Reddening E(B−V) | 0.17 |
| Source | MWSC (Kharchenko et al. 2013) |
| Right ascension (J2000) | 5h 35m 06.0s |
| Declination (J2000) | −4° 25′ 12″ |
In the sky
Visible from the whole Southern Hemisphere and north to latitude 86° N. It stands highest at midnight in December, the best time to observe it.
Through a telescope from Earth
Light's journey
The light you see tonight set out around the year 760. At the speed of Voyager 1, the fastest craft leaving the Solar System (16.9 km per second), the trip would take 22 million years.