Beehive Cluster

Star Cluster

One of the nearest open clusters to the Sun, seen by the naked eye as a hazy patch in Cancer and resolved into dozens of stars by Galileo in 1609.

Facts

TypeStar Cluster
Cluster typeOpen
Distance from Earth610 ly
Diameter216,100,000,000,000 km
Mass1.19 × 10^33 kg
Apparent magnitude3.7
Redshift0
Discovered150

Beehive Cluster in context

At 216,100,000,000,000 km across, Beehive Cluster is 16,959,660,964 times the diameter of Earth.

Its mass is 600 times the mass of the Sun.

The light reaching us from Beehive Cluster tonight left it around 610 years ago.

Of the 12 star clusters these pages cover, only 2 lie closer to us.

It has been on record since the year 150.

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