File:Messier_6_-_The_Butterfly_Cluster.jpg · Wikimedia Commons · See Wikimedia Commons
Butterfly Cluster
Sign in to saveAlso known as Messier 6, M6
Open cluster in the constellation Scorpius
The Butterfly Cluster is a group of stars located in the constellation Scorpius that can be seen from Earth. It's notable as an example of an open cluster, which is a type of stellar grouping that helps astronomers study how stars form and evolve together.
AI-generated from the Wikipedia summary — may contain errors.
Wikidata facts
- Distance from Earth
- 487
- Radius
- 6
- Image
- M6a.jpg
Show 12 more facts
- right ascension component of proper motion
- -1.366
- radial velocity
- -7.3
- catalog code
- [KPS2012] MWSC 2661
- Commons category
- Messier 6
- time of discovery or invention
- 1654-00-00
- apparent magnitude
- 4.48
- spectral class
- II
- right ascension
- 265.0833
- declination
- -32.2533
- parallax
- 2.1626
- metallicity
- 0.07
- declination component of proper motion
- -5.806
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Article
The Butterfly Cluster (cataloged as Messier 6 or M6, and as NGC 6405) is an open cluster of stars in the southern constellation of Scorpius. Its name derives from the resemblance of its shape to a butterfly.
The first astronomer to record the Butterfly Cluster's existence was Giovanni Battista Hodierna in 1654. However, Robert Burnham Jr. has proposed that the 2nd century astronomer Ptolemy may have seen it with the naked eye while observing its neighbor the Ptolemy Cluster (M7). Credit for the discovery is usually given to Jean-Philippe Loys de Chéseaux in 1746. Charles Messier observed the cluster on May 23, 1764, and added it to his Messier Catalog.