M11, the Wild Duck Cluster, is a rich open cluster in Scutum.
What It Is
M11, the Wild Duck Cluster, is a rich and compact open cluster in Scutum. Its stars formed together from the same cloud of gas and dust, and the brightest members make a rough V shape that inspired the flying-ducks nickname.
History
Gottfried Kirch discovered M11 in 1681, and William Derham later resolved the fuzzy glow into individual stars in 1733. Charles Messier added it to his catalog in 1764 as another fixed, comet-like object observers should not confuse with a new comet.
Science Notes
- NASA lists M11 at about 6,200 light-years away with an apparent magnitude of 6.3, making it visible in binoculars and faintly naked-eye from dark skies.
- It is one of the richest and most compact open clusters known, with NASA giving a count of more than 2,900 stars.
- Astronomers estimate the cluster is roughly 220 million years old from its brightest, hottest main-sequence stars.
- Open clusters are only loosely bound compared with globular clusters, so M11 will eventually disperse into the surrounding Milky Way.
- ESO notes that M11 is almost 20 light-years across and lies in the dense star fields of Scutum, a bright Milky Way region.
- distance
- ~6,200 light-years
- age
- ~220 million years
- diameter
- ~20 light-years
- stars
- More than 2,900 stars
- apparentMagnitude
- +6.3
- constellation
- Scutum
- objectType
- Open cluster
- coordinates
- RA 18h 51m 05s, Dec -06 deg 16 min 12 sec
- bestObserved
- August from mid-northern latitudes
