Star cluster
NGC 2194
Open star cluster · 631 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 | 2,804 pc (9.1 thousand ly) |
| Age | 631 million years |
| Member stars (MWSC) | 325 |
| Reddening E(B−V) | 0.50 |
| Source | MWSC (Kharchenko et al. 2013) |
| Right ascension (J2000) | 6h 13m 46.2s |
| Declination (J2000) | +12° 49′ 05″ |
In the sky
Visible from the whole Northern Hemisphere and south to latitude 77° S. North of latitude 77° N it never sets. 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 9,146 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 162 million years.