NGC 2477 (also known as Caldwell 71 or the Termite Hole Cluster) is an

open cluster An open cluster is a type of star cluster made of tens to a few thousand stars that were formed from the same giant molecular cloud and have roughly the same age. More than 1,100 open clusters have been discovered within the Milky Way galaxy, and ...

in the

constellation A constellation is an area on the celestial sphere in which a group of visible stars forms Asterism (astronomy), a perceived pattern or outline, typically representing an animal, mythological subject, or inanimate object. The first constellati ...

Puppis Puppis ("poop deck, stern") is a constellation in the southern sky. It was originally part of the Former constellations, traditional constellation of Argo Navis (the ship of Jason and the Argonauts), which was divided into three parts, the other ...

. It contains about 300 stars, and was discovered by Abbé Lacaille in 1751. The cluster's age has been estimated at 700 million years.

Visual appearance

NGC 2477 is a stunning cluster, almost as extensive in the sky as the full moon. It has been called "one of the top open clusters in the sky", like a highly resolved

globular cluster A globular cluster is a spheroidal conglomeration of stars that is bound together by gravity, with a higher concentration of stars towards its center. It can contain anywhere from tens of thousands to many millions of member stars, all orbiting ...

without the dense center characteristic of globular clusters. Burnham notes that several observers have remarked on its richness, and that although it is smaller than M46 (also an open cluster in Puppis), it is richer and more compact.

Distance

Burnham cites several published distances, ranging from to , where "ly" is the abbreviation for

light year A light-year, alternatively spelled light year (ly or lyr), is a unit of length used to express astronomical distance, astronomical distances and is equal to exactly , which is approximately 9.46 trillion km or 5.88 trillion mi. As defined by t ...

Notes

External links

* {{puppis 2477 Open clusters Puppis 071b ?