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Concept information

stellar astronomy > star cluster > open cluster > Beehive Cluster

Preferred term

Beehive Cluster  

Definition

  • Praesepe (M44, NGC 2632) is a large, bright, relatively nearby open cluster in the constellation Cancer, easily visible to the naked eye; also known as the Beehive Cluster, its Latin name means "manger." Ptolemy included it as one of seven "nebulae" in his Almagest and Galileo first resolved it into stars. All told, the cluster contains about 1,000 stars in a region of sky measuring 25–30 light-years across, giving it an apparent diameter of 1.5° at its distance from us of about 577 light-years (177 pc). They include the eclipsing binary TX Cancri, the metal line star Epsilon Cancri, several Delta Scuti stars of magnitudes 7 to 8 in an early post-main-sequence state, and one peculiar blue star. Nearly a third of the stars in the cluster are similar to the Sun (spectral classes F, G, or K) and about 68% are red dwarfs. In 2012, the discovery was announced of two planets around two of the Sunlike stars in the Praesepe – the first such planets to be found in a cluster. Interestingly, the age and the direction of proper motion of M44 are very similar to those of the Hyades, another famous naked-eye cluster. Probably these two clusters, though now separated by hundreds of light-years, have a common origin in some great diffuse gaseous nebula which existed 400 million years ago. This would also explain the similarity of the stellar populations – both clusters containing red giants (Praesepe at least five of them) and some white dwarfs. (Encyclopedia of Science, by David Darling, https://www.daviddarling.info/encyclopedia/P/Praesepe.html)

Broader concept

Entry terms

  • Cr 189
  • M44
  • NGC 2632
  • Praesepe

In other languages

  • M44

    French

  • Cr 189
  • La Ruche
  • NGC 2632
  • Praesepe

URI

http://data.loterre.fr/ark:/67375/MDL-SMLB9MCR-6

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