M47

open star cluster · in Puppis

1,527 light-years from Earth

A bright, coarse cluster. Messier wrote down its position wrongly, so for nearly two centuries no one knew which cluster he meant, until it was matched to NGC 2422 in 1959.

• 1,530 light-years (Gaia) · its stars spread over about 30 light-years
• about 110 million years old · 510 of its stars as Gaia measured them

kind

nebula · star cluster

catalogue

M47 · NGC 2422 · NGC 2478

size

32 light-years across