The Northern Jewel Box, NGC 6231, is a young cluster of brilliant hot stars in Scorpius, the bright heart of an association of massive stars near Zeta Scorpii.
At a glance
| type | open star cluster |
|---|---|
| distance from the Sun | 5,070 light-years (1.55 kpc) |
| its light left it | 5,070 years ago |
| size in the piece | about 14 light-years acrossmodel |
Read off the piece’s own catalogue, the same values it draws with. Model marks a property of the piece’s galaxy model rather than a measurement.
About Northern Jewel Box
NGC 6231 lies in the tail of Scorpius, close in the sky to the star pair Zeta Scorpii, and appears to the eye as a bright knot in the southern Milky Way. It earns its nickname by resembling the Jewel Box in Crux, though it lies north of it in the sky. It is very young, and its brightest members are blue O-type and B-type stars, among the most massive and luminous stars in the galaxy, along with Wolf–Rayet stars.
It is the core of Scorpius OB1, an association in Scorpius, a wider grouping of massive stars born from the same cloud. Many of its massive stars are close binaries, which has made it a key site for measuring how often heavy stars form in pairs. Because they burn so fast, the cluster will lose its brightest stars to supernovae while it is still young.
What you see in the piece
In the piece it is a tight swarm of stars, mostly hot blue-white, in the direction of the galactic centre. Dust along that line of sight dims and reddens it from the Sun.
Questions
Why is NGC 6231 called the Northern Jewel Box?
Its brilliant blue-white stars resemble those of the Jewel Box cluster in Crux, and it lies north of that cluster in the sky.
How far away is the Northern Jewel Box?
The Northern Jewel Box is 5,070 light-years (1.55 kpc) from the Sun.