Pleiades
(M45, NGC 1432)
In astronomy,
the Pleiades, or
Seven Sisters (Messier object
45), is an open star
cluster containing
middle-aged hot B-type stars located in the
constellation of Taurus.
It is among the nearest star clusters to Earth and is the cluster
most obvious to the naked eye in the night sky.
Pleiades has several meanings in
different cultures and traditions.
The
cluster is dominated by hot blue and
extremely luminous stars
that have formed within the last 100 million years. Dust that forms a
faint reflection
nebulosity around
the brightest stars was thought at first to be left over from the
formation of the cluster (hence the alternate name Maia Nebula after the star Maia),
but is now known to be an unrelated dust cloud in the interstellar
medium that the
stars are currently passing through. Astronomers estimate that the
cluster will survive for about another 250 million years, after which
it will disperse due to gravitational interactions with its galactic
neighborhood.