NGC 1502 is a young

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, and ...

of approximately 60 stars in the constellation

Camelopardalis Camelopardalis is a large but faint constellation of the northern sky representing a giraffe. The constellation was introduced in 1612 or 1613 by Petrus Plancius. Some older astronomy books give Camelopardalus or Camelopardus as alternative for ...

, discovered by

William Herschel Frederick William Herschel (; german: Friedrich Wilhelm Herschel; 15 November 1738 – 25 August 1822) was a German-born British astronomer and composer. He frequently collaborated with his younger sister and fellow astronomer Caroline H ...

on November 3, 1787. It has a

visual magnitude Apparent magnitude () is a measure of the brightness of a star or other astronomical object observed from Earth. An object's apparent magnitude depends on its intrinsic luminosity, its distance from Earth, and any extinction of the object's ...

of 6.0 and thus is dimly visible to the naked eye. This cluster is located at a distance of approximately from the Sun, at the outer edge of the

Cam OB1 association Camelopardalis OB1 (Cam OB1) is a group of young stars that share a common origin and a similar motion through space, but, as a whole, are no longer gravitationally bound. The name indicates this stellar association is located in the area of the ...

of co-moving stars, and is likely part of the

Orion Arm The Orion Arm is a minor spiral arm of the Milky Way Galaxy that is across and approximately in length, containing the Solar System, including Earth. It is also referred to by its full name, the Orion–Cygnus Arm, as well as Local Arm, Orion ...

. The asterism known as

Kemble's Cascade Kemble's Cascade (designated Kemble 1) is an asterism located in the constellation Camelopardalis. It is an apparent straight line of more than 20 colourful 5th to 10th magnitude stars over a distance of approximately 3 degrees (five moon diameter ...

appears to "flow" into NGC 1502, but this is just a chance alignment of stars. The

Trumpler class 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, a ...

of NGC 1502 is II3p, indicating poorly populated cluster of stars (p) with a wide brightness range (3). The

main sequence In astronomy, the main sequence is a continuous and distinctive band of stars that appears on plots of stellar color versus brightness. These color-magnitude plots are known as Hertzsprung–Russell diagrams after their co-developers, Ejnar Her ...

turnoff point The turnoff point for a star refers to the point on the Hertzsprung-Russell diagram where it leaves the main sequence after its main fuel is exhaustedthe main sequence turnoff. By plotting the turnoff points of individual stars in a star cluster ...

is not well-defined, so the age estimates range from five to fifteen million years. It is heavily reddened due to

interstellar dust Cosmic dust, also called extraterrestrial dust, star dust or space dust, is dust which exists in outer space, or has fallen on Earth. Most cosmic dust particles measure between a few molecules and 0.1 mm (100 micrometers). Larger particles are c ...

. One of the brightest candidate members of the cluster is the

eclipsing binary A binary star is a system of two stars that are gravitationally bound to and in orbit around each other. Binary stars in the night sky that are seen as a single object to the naked eye are often resolved using a telescope as separate stars, in w ...

SZ Cam, which is a component of a visual

double star In observational astronomy, a double star or visual double is a pair of stars that appear close to each other as viewed from Earth, especially with the aid of optical telescopes. This occurs because the pair either forms a binary star (i.e. a bi ...

ADS 2984. There are eleven

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 ...

s and four candidate variables among the cluster members, including a β Cep, two periodic B-type variables, 2–3 eclipsing variables, and an

RR Lyrae RR Lyrae is a variable star in the Lyra constellation, figuring in its west near to Cygnus. As the brightest star in its class, it became the eponym for the RR Lyrae variable class of stars and it has been extensively studied by astro ...

star. Five members of the cluster are chemically peculiar.

References

External links

* * __NOTOC__ {{DEFAULTSORT:NGC 1502

1502 Year 1502 (Roman numerals, MDII) was a common year starting on Saturday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar. Events January–June * January 1 – Kingdom of Portugal, Portuguese explorers, led by Gonçal ...

Camelopardalis Discoveries by William Herschel Open clusters

See also

References

External links