Double Cluster

Double Cluster — star cluster, explore its interactive 3D model in Cosmoscope.

Explore the Double Cluster in an interactive 3D star cluster. Fly among its real Gaia member stars, each placed at its catalogued position.

Two young star clusters side by side in Perseus, about 53 light-years apart across the sky and visible to the naked eye as a pair of misty patches. Their brilliant blue-white giants are only about 14 million years old.

Type

A pair of young open clusters: h and χ Persei (NGC 869 and NGC 884)

Distance

~7,500 light-years

Age

~14 million years

Stars

690 Gaia DR3 members shown (403 + 287) · ~4,000 Suns of mass in all

Shown here

Each member at its Gaia DR3 sky position (Hunt & Reffert 2023)

Depths

Illustrative: too far for parallaxes to place stars within a cluster, so each is set along its sightline by the clusters’ measured density

Colours

As seen from Earth, reddened by ~1.6 magnitudes of interstellar dust

Explore Double Cluster in 3D

Double Cluster is placed in three-dimensional space using catalogue coordinates and an adopted astronomical distance. Rotate and zoom to explore the model. Stellar surfaces, gas structure and dust depths may be reconstructed or illustrative, as described in its facts; this is not live imagery from a telescope.