M45 - The Pleiades

Distance From Earth: 440 Light Years
Diameter: 17 Light Years
Total Exposure Time: 27.3 Hours

The Pleiades is a nearby open star cluster located about 440 light-years from Earth in the constellation Taurus. Its hot, blue B-type stars formed roughly 100 million years ago from the same molecular cloud and remain gravitationally associated. The faint blue nebulosity often seen around the cluster is a reflection nebula, caused by interstellar dust scattering starlight as the cluster passes through it, not by ongoing star formation.