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EntityQ818603· pop 36· linked from 335 articles

open cluster in Gemini

Key facts

Right ascension
06 07 25
Declination
+24 ° 05.8 ′
Distance
11,000+ ly (3600±400 pc)
Apparent dimensions v
5 arcmin
Mass
3067 ±69.84 M ☉
Radius
8 ly
Estimated age
~2 billion yrs
Other designations
OCL 468, Lund 206, Melotte 40
Constellation
Gemini
Galaxy
Milky Way

via Wikipedia infobox

Wikidata facts

Instance of
open cluster
Constellation
Gemini
Distance from Earth
8472.274
Image
NGC 2158.jpg
Show 13 more facts
Commons category
NGC 2158
catalog code
[KPS2012] MWSC 0733
discoverer or inventor
William Herschel
time of discovery or invention
1784-11-16
apparent magnitude
8.6
right ascension
91.8542
declination
24.0967
epoch
J2000.0
radial velocity
26.64
parallax
0.1833
metallicity
-0.32
right ascension component of proper motion
-0.166
declination component of proper motion
-1.993
Sources (2)

via Wikidata · CC0

~3 min read

Encyclopedic overview

NGC 2158, also known as OCL 468, Lund 206 or Melotte 40, it is an open cluster of stars located around 11,000 light years (3600 ±400 pc) from Earth in the constellation of Gemini. It is of intermediate age being around 2 billion years old. The cluster is populous with stars containing some 3000 ±69 stars within a radius of about 8 light years.

It is, in angle, immediately southwest of open cluster Messier 35. The two clusters are unrelated, as the subject is around 9,000 light years further away.

Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “Q818603” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.