Messier 35 or M35, also known as NGC 2168, is a relatively close

open cluster An open cluster is a type of star cluster made of up to a few thousand stars that were formed from the same giant molecular cloud and have roughly the same age. More than 1,100 open clusters have been discovered within the Milky Way galaxy, an ...

of stars in the west of

Gemini Gemini may refer to: Space * Gemini (constellation), one of the constellations of the zodiac ** Gemini in Chinese astronomy * Project Gemini, the second U.S. crewed spaceflight program * Gemini Observatory, consisting of telescopes in the Norther ...

, at about the declination of the sun when the latter is at

June solstice The June solstice is the solstice on Earth that occurs annually between 20 and 22 June according to the Gregorian calendar. In the Northern Hemisphere, the June solstice is the summer solstice (the day with the longest period of daylight), whi ...

. It was discovered by

Philippe Loys de Chéseaux Jean-Philippe Loys de Cheseaux (; 4 May 1718 – 30 November 1751) was a Swiss astronomer. Biography Loys de Cheseaux was born on 4 May 1718 in Lausanne, Vaud, to Paul-Etienne Loys de Cheseaux, a banneret, and Estienne-Judith de Crousaz. His ...

around 1745 and independently discovered by

John Bevis John Bevis (10 November 1695 in Salisbury, Wiltshire – 6 November 1771) was an English doctor, electrical researcher and astronomer. He is best known for discovering the Crab Nebula in 1731. He was educated at Christ Church, Oxford, bein ...

before 1750. It is scattered over part of the sky almost the size of the

full moon The full moon is the lunar phase when the Moon appears fully illuminated from Earth's perspective. This occurs when Earth is located between the Sun and the Moon (when the ecliptic longitudes of the Sun and Moon differ by 180°). This means ...

and is away. The compact open cluster NGC 2158 lies directly southwest of it. Leonard & Merritt (1989) computed the mass of M35 using a statistical technique based on proper motion velocities of its stars. The mass within the central was found to be between 1600 and 3200 solar masses, consistent with the mass of a realistic stellar population within the same radius. Bouy et al. in 2015 found a mass of around within the central . There are 305 stars that can be intrinsically shown to be extremely likely to be members, and up to 4,349 averaging the 50% membership probability, from the kinematic (such as parallax and proper motion) and spectral data published before 2015. The cluster's metallicity is e/H= , where −1 would be ten times less metallic than the sun. Of 418 probable members, Leiner et al. in 2015 found 64 that have variable

radial velocities The radial velocity or line-of-sight velocity, also known as radial speed or range rate, of a target with respect to an observer is the rate of change of the distance or range between the two points. It is equivalent to the vector projection o ...

thus are binary star systems. Four probable members are chemically peculiars, while HD 41995, which in the (telescopic angular) cluster field, shows

emission line A spectral line is a dark or bright line in an otherwise uniform and continuous spectrum, resulting from emission or absorption of light in a narrow frequency range, compared with the nearby frequencies. Spectral lines are often used to identi ...

s. Hu et al. in 2005 found 13

variable star A variable star is a star whose brightness as seen from Earth (its apparent magnitude) changes with time. This variation may be caused by a change in emitted light or by something partly blocking the light, so variable stars are classified as e ...

s in the field; at least three are suspect as cluster members. To be a member means to have a gravitational tie or, if recently freed, having been created by the same event.

References and footnotes

External links

M35 – Nightskyinfo.com
* * - featured M35 * {{DEFAULTSORT:Messier 35 Messier 035 Messier 035 035 Messier 035 Orion–Cygnus Arm ?

See also

References and footnotes

External links