Star cluster
SAI 46
Open star cluster · 1.6 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 | Auriga |
| Distance | 5,441 pc (17.7 thousand ly) |
| Age | 1.6 billion years |
| Member stars (MWSC) | 47 |
| Reddening E(B−V) | 1.00 |
| Source | MWSC (Kharchenko et al. 2013) |
| Right ascension (J2000) | 5h 19m 39.0s |
| Declination (J2000) | +36° 30′ 00″ |
In the sky
Visible from the whole Northern Hemisphere and south to latitude 53° S. North of latitude 54° 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 18 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 315 million years.