NGC 146
Open cluster in the constellation Cassiopeia
NGC 146 is a small open cluster in the constellation Cassiopeia. It was discovered by John Herschel in 1829 using his father's 18.7 inch reflecting telescope.
01Location
NGC 146 is fairly easy to locate in the sky, being half a degree away from the bright star Kappa Cassiopeiae. However, spotting the cluster itself is difficult because of its low apparent magnitude of 9.1. Its relatively high declination of about 63° means it is not visible for below 27° S. Its distance is estimated at about 3,000 parsecs (10,000 light years) away.
NGC 146 is close to the open cluster King 14, both being located in the Perseus Arm. The two clusters follow similar circular orbits throughout the Milky Way's thin disk, orbiting at a distance of 9,000 parsecs (29,000 light-years) from the Galactic Center with an orbital period of about 255 million years. The two likely originated from the same giant molecular cloud but are not gravitationally bound to each other.
02Characteristics
The cluster is fairly young, as there are numerous B-type and A-type main sequence stars and pre-main-sequence stars but relatively few evolved supergiants. Among its most massive stars are two Herbig Be stars.
Sources and credits
This article is adapted from the Wikipedia article “NGC 146”, written by its contributors and licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Fathomly has changed the layout, removed citation markers, navigation and maintenance notices, and adjusted punctuation. This adapted version is shared under the same license. For references, see the original article.
Images, from Wikimedia Commons:
- NGC 146 map.png by Roberto Mura, CC BY-SA 3.0
- Kappa Cassiopeiae, NGC146 and NGC133.jpg by David Ritter, CC BY-SA 4.0
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