Hyades

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

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

The nearest star cluster to the Sun: hundreds of stars born together, forming the V-shaped face of Taurus the Bull. Gaia measures the distance to every member, so this is the cluster’s true shape in space.

Type

Open star cluster — the nearest to the Sun

Distance

154 light-years

Age

~650 million years

Stars

930 Gaia DR3 members shown · ~410 Suns of mass in all

Shown here

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

Depths

Measured star by star from Gaia parallaxes — the cluster’s real 3D shape

Not a member

Aldebaran, the bright orange eye of Taurus, lies in front at 67 light-years

Explore Hyades in 3D

Hyades 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.