🔭 M6 — Butterfly Cluster

Open cluster in Scorpius

M6, Butterfly Cluster is a open cluster in the constellation Scorpius, with an apparent magnitude of about 4.2, roughly 1.6 thousand light-years away.

Data

Catalogue designation	M6
Common name	Butterfly Cluster
Object type	Open cluster
Constellation	Scorpius
NGC / IC	NGC 6405
Apparent magnitude	4.2
Distance (approx.)	1.6 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.

Other Messier objects in Scorpius: M4, M7, M80.

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