The
Pleiades also known as
the Seven Sisters,
Messier 45, and other names by different cultures, is an
asterism and an
open star cluster containing middle-aged, hot
B-type stars in the north-west of the constellation
Taurus. At a distance of about 444
light-years, it is among the nearest
star clusters to
Earth. It is the nearest
Messier object to Earth, and is the most obvious cluster to the
naked eye in the
night sky. It is also observed to house the reflection nebula
NGC 1432, an
HII region.The cluster is dominated by
hot blue luminous stars that have formed within the last 100 million years.
Reflection nebulae around the brightest stars were once thought to be leftover material from their formation, but are now considered likely to be an unrelated dust cloud in the
interstellar medium through which the stars are currently passing.=10.5px This dust cloud is estimated to be moving at a speed of approximately 18 km/s relative to the stars in the cluster.
Source: Wikipedia
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