Star cluster
NGC 956
Open star cluster · 1.3 billion 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 | Andromeda |
| Distance | 2,613 pc (8.5 thousand ly) |
| Age | 1.3 billion years |
| Member stars (MWSC) | 52 |
| Reddening E(B−V) | 0.35 |
| Source | MWSC (Kharchenko et al. 2013) |
| Right ascension (J2000) | 2h 31m 58.8s |
| Declination (J2000) | +44° 34′ 48″ |
In the sky
Visible from the whole Northern Hemisphere and south to latitude 45° S. North of latitude 45° N it never sets. It stands highest at midnight in October, the best time to observe it.
Through a telescope from Earth
Light's journey
The light you see tonight set out 8,523 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 151 million years.