Star cluster
Platais 4
Open star cluster · 355 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 | Taurus |
| Distance | 275 pc (896.9 ly) |
| Age | 355 million years |
| Member stars (MWSC) | 187 |
| Reddening E(B−V) | 0.27 |
| Source | MWSC (Kharchenko et al. 2013) |
| Right ascension (J2000) | 5h 06m 52.2s |
| Declination (J2000) | +22° 34′ 23″ |
In the sky
Visible from the whole Northern Hemisphere and south to latitude 67° S. North of latitude 67° 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 around the year 1129. At the speed of Voyager 1, the fastest craft leaving the Solar System (16.9 km per second), the trip would take 16 million years.