🔭 M41 — Little Beehive Cluster

Open cluster in Canis Major

M41, Little Beehive Cluster is a open cluster in the constellation Canis Major, with an apparent magnitude of about 4.5, roughly 2.3 thousand light-years away.

Data

Catalogue designation	M41
Common name	Little Beehive Cluster
Object type	Open cluster
Constellation	Canis Major
NGC / IC	NGC 2287
Apparent magnitude	4.5
Distance (approx.)	2.3 thousand light-years

What a open cluster is

A loose, young family of a few dozen to a few thousand stars born together from the same gas cloud and drifting apart over time. The Pleiades are the most famous example.

Data: Messier catalogue & IAU constellations, via English Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 3.0) · stored statically.