Butterfly Cluster

open star cluster · M6 · in Scorpius

1,474 light-years from Earth

Its brightest stars outline a butterfly with open wings. Most are hot and blue-white, but the brightest, BM Scorpii, is an orange giant; on the sky it is the Messier object nearest the centre of our galaxy.

• 1,470 light-years (Gaia) · its stars spread over about 30 light-years
• 50 to 80 million years old · 533 of its stars as Gaia measured them

kind

nebula · star cluster

catalogue

M6 · NGC 6405

size

31 light-years across