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The Pleiades (/ ˈ p l iː. ə d iː z, ˈ p l eɪ-, ˈ p l aɪ-/), [8] [9] also known as Seven Sisters and Messier 45 (M45), is an asterism of an open star cluster containing young B-type stars in the northwest of the constellation Taurus.
So far, 131 such objects have been found. Only 22 are bright enough to be visible without a telescope, for which the star's visible light needs to reach or exceed the dimmest brightness visible to the naked eye from Earth, 6.5 apparent magnitude. [1] The known 131 objects are bound in 94 stellar systems.
The core radius is 2.7 parsecs (8.8 light-years, a little more than the distance between the Sun and Sirius), while the half-mass radius, within which half the cluster's mass is contained, is 5.7 parsecs (19 light-years). The tidal radius of ten parsecs (33 light-years) represents the Hyades' average outer limit, beyond which a star is unlikely ...
Taurus hosts two of the nearest open clusters to Earth, the Pleiades and the Hyades, both of which are visible to the naked eye. At first magnitude, the red giant Aldebaran is the brightest star in the constellation.
As noted by scholar Stith Thompson, the constellation was "nearly always imagined" as a group of seven sisters, and their myths explain why there are only six. [3] Some scientists suggest that these may come from observations back when Pleione was further from Atlas and more visible as a separate star as far back as 100,000 BC. [4]
Maia / ˈ m eɪ ə /, designated 20 Tauri (abbreviated 20 Tau), is a star in the constellation of Taurus. It is a blue giant of spectral type B8 III, a chemically peculiar star, and the prototype of the Maia variable class of variable star. Maia is the fourth-brightest star in the Pleiades open star cluster (Messier 45), after Alcyone, Atlas ...
Electra / ə ˈ l ɛ k t r ə /, [11] designated 17 Tauri, is a blue-white giant star in the constellation of Taurus located approximately 400 light years away. It is the third-brightest star in the Pleiades open star cluster (), visible to the naked eye with an apparent magnitude of 3.7.
Alcyone / æ l ˈ s aɪ ə n iː /, [11] designated η Tauri (Eta Tauri, abbreviated Eta Tau, η Tau), is a star in the constellation of Taurus. Approximately 440 light-years from the Sun, it is the brightest star in the Pleiades open cluster, which is a young cluster, around 100 million years old. There are a number of fainter stars very close ...