Star cluster
NGC 2401
Open star cluster · 10 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 | Puppis |
| Distance | 3,778 pc (12.3 thousand ly) |
| Age | 10 million years |
| Member stars (MWSC) | 61 |
| Reddening E(B−V) | 0.35 |
| Source | MWSC (Kharchenko et al. 2013) |
| Right ascension (J2000) | 7h 29m 24.4s |
| Declination (J2000) | −13° 58′ 19″ |
In the sky
Visible from the whole Southern Hemisphere and north to latitude 76° N. South of latitude 76° S 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 12 thousand years ago. At that time Homo sapiens was spreading out of Africa; there was no farming yet. At the speed of Voyager 1, the fastest craft leaving the Solar System (16.9 km per second), the trip would take 219 million years.