M 45 “Pleiades”

In astronomy (opens in a new tab), the Pleiades, or Seven Sisters (Messier object 45 (opens in a new tab)), is an open star cluster (opens in a new tab) containing middle-aged hot B-type stars (opens in a new tab) located in the constellation of Taurus (opens in a new tab). It is among the nearest star clusters (opens in a new tab) to Earth and is the cluster most obvious to the naked eye (opens in a new tab) in the night sky (opens in a new tab). Pleiades has several meanings in different cultures and traditions (opens in a new tab). The cluster is dominated by hot blue and extremely luminous (opens in a new tab) stars that have formed within the last 100 million years. Dust that forms a faint reflection nebulosity (opens in a new tab) around the brightest stars was thought at first to be left over from the formation of the cluster (hence the alternate name Maia Nebula after the star Maia (opens in a new tab)), but is now known to be an unrelated dust cloud in the interstellar medium (opens in a new tab) that the stars are currently passing through. Astronomers estimate that the cluster will survive for about another 250 million years, after which it will disperse due to gravitational interactions with its galactic neighborhood.