The Southern Pleiades is a bright open cluster in Carina, a group of blue-white stars led by Theta Carinae and among the finest naked-eye clusters in the south.
At a glance
| type | open star cluster |
|---|---|
| distance from the Sun | 491 light-years (151 pc) |
| its light left it | 491 years ago |
| size in the piece | about 19 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 Southern Pleiades
This cluster in Carina is named for its resemblance to the Pleiades of the northern sky: a compact group of hot, young blue-white stars, easily seen with the naked eye. Its brightest member is Theta Carinae, and it lies in a rich part of the southern Milky Way not far on the sky from the Carina Nebula.
The cluster is young and nearby, similar in age and motion to the Omicron Velorum Cluster in neighbouring Vela, and the two are often studied together to follow how young stars settle down. Despite the name, it is a different cluster from the Pleiades, with no physical link to it.
What you see in the piece
From Earth it is a bright knot near the Carina Nebula; fly in and its members stay together, blue-white because they are hot.
Questions
How far away is the Southern Pleiades?
The Southern Pleiades is about 491 light-years (151 pc) from the Sun.
Why is it called the Southern Pleiades?
It looks like a smaller southern version of the Pleiades, a compact group of bright blue-white stars, though the two clusters are unrelated.