Beehive Cluster

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Open cluster in the constellation Cancer

title: "Beehive Cluster" type: doc version: 1 created: 2026-02-28 author: "Wikipedia contributors" status: active scope: public tags: ["cancer-(constellation)", "orion–cygnus-arm", "open-clusters", "messier-objects", "ngc-objects", "astronomical-objects-known-since-antiquity", "dionysus", "silenus"] description: "Open cluster in the constellation Cancer" topic_path: "general/cancer-constellation" source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beehive_Cluster" license: "CC BY-SA 4.0" wikipedia_page_id: 0 wikipedia_revision_id: 0

::summary Open cluster in the constellation Cancer ::

::data[format=table title="Infobox open cluster"]

Field	Value
name	Messier 44 / Beehive Cluster
image	M44-Star-Cluster.png
caption	The Beehive Cluster in Cancer constellation (north is to the right)
epoch	J2000.0
constellation	Cancer
ra	08h 40.4m
dec	19° 59′
dist_ly	610 ly
dist_pc	187 pc
appmag_v	3.7
title	Messier 44
url	http://messier.seds.org/m/m044.html
work	SEDS
access-date	2009-12-10
size_v	95′
mass_msol	~500–600
radius_ly	11.42 ly
age	~600–700 million years
names	Praesepe, M44, NGC 2632, Cr 189
::

The Beehive Cluster (also known as Praesepe (Latin for "manger", "cot" or "crib"), M44, NGC 2632, or Cr 189) is an open cluster in the constellation Cancer. One of the nearest open clusters to Earth, it contains a larger population of stars than other nearby bright open clusters holding around 1,000 stars. Under dark skies, the Beehive Cluster looks like a small nebulous object to the naked eye, and has been known since ancient times. Classical astronomer Ptolemy described it as a "nebulous mass in the breast of Cancer". It was among the first objects that Galileo studied with his telescope.

Its age and proper motion coincide with those of the Hyades, suggesting they may share similar origins. |last=Klein-Wassink |first=W.J. |date=1927 |title=The proper motion and the distance of the Praesepe cluster |journal=Publications of the Kapteyn Astronomical Laboratory Groningen |volume=41 |pages=1–48 |bibcode=1927PGro...41....1K |author=Dobbie PD |author2=Napiwotzki R |author3=Burleigh MR |date=2006 |title=New Praesepe white dwarfs and the initial mass-final mass relation |journal=Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society |volume=369 |issue=1 |pages=383–389 |bibcode=2006MNRAS.369..383D |doi=10.1111/j.1365-2966.2006.10311.x |doi-access=free |arxiv=astro-ph/0603314 |s2cid=17914736 |display-authors=etal}} Both clusters also contain red giants and white dwarfs, which represent later stages of stellar evolution, along with many main sequence stars.

The distance to M44 is often cited to be between 160 and 187 parsecs (520–610 light years), |author=Pinfield DJ |display-authors=4 |author2=Dobbie PD |author3=Jameson F |author4=Steele IA |author5=Jones HRA |author6=Katsiyannis AC |date=2003 |title=Brown dwarfs and low-mass stars in the Pleiades and Praesepe: Membership and binarity |journal=Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society |volume=342 |issue=4 |pages=1241–1259 |bibcode= 2003MNRAS.342.1241P |doi=10.1046/j.1365-8711.2003.06630.x |doi-access=free |arxiv = astro-ph/0303600 |s2cid=285922 |author=Kraus AL |author2=Hillenbrand LA |date=2007 |title=The stellar populations of Praesepe and Coma Berenices |journal=Astronomical Journal |volume=134 |issue=6 |pages=2340–2352 |bibcode=2007AJ....134.2340K |doi=10.1086/522831 |arxiv = 0708.2719 |s2cid=15945900 |author=Adams JD |author2=Stauffer JR |author3=Skrutskie MF |date=2002 |title=Structure of the Praesepe Star Cluster |journal=Astronomical Journal |volume=124 |issue=3 |pages=1570–1584 |bibcode=2002AJ....124.1570A |doi=10.1086/342016 |display-authors=etal|doi-access=free}} (compared to about 625 million years for the Hyades). |author=Perryman M |author2=Brown A |author3=Lebreton Y |author4=Gomez A |author5=Turon C |author6=Cayrel de Strobel G |author7=Mermilliod J |author8=Robichon N |author9=Kovalevsky J |author10=Crifo F |display-authors=6 |date=1998 |title=The Hyades: Distance, structure, dynamics, and age |journal=Astronomy & Astrophysics |volume=331 |pages=81–120 |bibcode=1998A&A...331...81P |arxiv = astro-ph/9707253 }} The diameter of the bright inner cluster core is about 7.0 parsecs (23 light years).

At 1.5° across, the cluster easily fits within the field of view of binoculars or low-powered small telescopes. Regulus, Castor, and Pollux are guide stars.

History

In 1609, Galileo first telescopically observed the Beehive and was able to resolve it into 40 stars. Charles Messier added it to his famous catalog in 1769 after precisely measuring its position in the sky. Along with the Orion Nebula and the Pleiades cluster, Messier's inclusion of the Beehive has been noted as curious, as most of Messier's objects were much fainter and more easily confused with comets. Another possibility is that Messier simply wanted to have a larger catalog than his scientific rival Lacaille, whose 1755 catalog contained 42 objects, and so he added some well-known bright objects to boost his list. |author=Frommert, Hartmut |date=1998 |url=http://messier.seds.org/m-q&a.html#why_M42-45 |title=Messier Questions & Answers |publisher=SEDS |access-date=2005-03-01 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20050209083425/http://www.seds.org/messier/m-q%26a.html#why_M42-45 |archive-date=9 February 2005 |url-status=live

Hipparchus (c.130 BC) refers to the cluster as Nephelion ("Little Cloud") in his star catalog. Claudius Ptolemy's Almagest includes the Beehive Cluster as one of seven "nebulae" (four of which are real), describing it as "The Nebulous Mass in the Breast (of Cancer)". Aratus (c.260–270 BC) calls the cluster Achlus or "Little Mist" in his poem Phainomena.

Johann Bayer showed the cluster as a nebulous star on his Uranometria atlas of 1603, and labeled it Epsilon. The letter is now applied specifically to the brightest star of the cluster Epsilon Cancri, of magnitude 6.29. Bayer also cited the name Melleff or Meeleph for the cluster, from Arabic Al Ma'laf, the Stall; as Meleph, this name is also now applied specifically to the star Epsilon Cancri.

This perceived nebulous object is in the Ghost (Gui Xiu), the 23rd lunar mansion of ancient Chinese astrology. Ancient Chinese skywatchers saw this as a ghost or demon riding in a carriage and likened its appearance to a "cloud of pollen blown from willow catkins". It was also known by the somewhat less romantic name of Jishi qi (積屍氣, also transliterated Tseih She Ke), the "Exhalation of Piled-up Corpses". It is also known simply as Jishi (積屍), "cumulative corpses".

Morphology and composition

Altogether, the cluster contains at least 1000 gravitationally bound stars, for a total mass of about 500–600 Solar masses. A recent survey counts 1010 high-probability members, of which 68% are M dwarfs, 30% are Sun-like stars of spectral classes F, G, and K, and about 2% are bright stars of spectral class A. Also present are five giant stars, four of which have spectral class K0 III and the fifth G0 III. |author=Abt HA |author2=Willmarth DW |date=1999 |title=Binaries in the Praesepe and Coma star clusters and their implications for binary evolution |journal=Astrophysical Journal |volume=521 |issue=2 |pages=682–690 |bibcode=1999ApJ...521..682A |doi=10.1086/307569 |s2cid=119772785 |doi-access=free

So far, eleven white dwarfs have been identified, representing the final evolutionary phase of the cluster's most massive stars, which originally belonged to spectral type B. Brown dwarfs, however, are rare in this cluster, probably because they have been lost by tidal stripping from the halo. A brown dwarf has been found in the eclipsing binary system AD 3116.

The cluster has a visual brightness of magnitude 3.7. Its brightest stars are blue-white and of magnitude 6 to 6.5. 42 Cancri is a confirmed member.

Planets

In September 2012, two planets which orbit separate stars were discovered in the Beehive Cluster. The finding was significant for being the first planets detected orbiting stars like Earth's Sun that were situated in stellar clusters. Planets had previously been detected in such clusters, but not orbiting stars like the Sun.

The planets have been designated Pr0201 b and Pr0211 b. The 'b' at the end of their names indicates that the bodies are planets. The discoveries are what have been termed hot Jupiters, massive gas giants that, unlike the planet Jupiter, orbit very close to their parent stars.

The announcement describing the planetary finds, written by Sam Quinn as the lead author, was published in the Astrophysical Journal Letters. Quinn's team worked with David Latham of the Harvard–Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, utilizing the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory's Fred Lawrence Whipple Observatory.

In 2016 additional observations found a second planet in the Pr0211 system, Pr0211 c. This made Pr0211 the first multi-planet system to be discovered in an open cluster.

The Kepler space telescope, in its K2 mission, discovered planets around several more stars in the Beehive Cluster. The stars K2-95, K2-100, K2-101, K2-102, K2-103, and K2-104 host a single planet each, and K2-264 has a two-planet system.

Gallery

File:Comet-Neat-Messier-44.jpeg|Photo of comet C/2001 Q4 (NEAT) next to Messier 44 File:M44 Heggie.jpg|Widefield image of the Beehive Cluster

References

"NGC 2632".
"Messier 44: Observations and Descriptions".
[http://www.univie.ac.at/webda/ WEBDA]
van Leeuwen, F. [http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2009A%26A...497..209V "Parallaxes and proper motions for 20 open clusters as based on the new Hipparcos catalogue"], ''A&A'', 2009
Majaess, D.; Turner, D.; Lane, D.; Krajci, T. [http://adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/bib_query?arXiv:1102.1705 "Deep Infrared ZAMS Fits to Benchmark Open Clusters Hosting delta Scuti Stars"], ''Journal of the American Association of Variable Star Observers'', 2011
"The Discovery of the Deep Sky Objects".
"Messier Object 44". [[SEDS]].
"Cancer – the asses and the Manger".
"First Planets Found Around Sun-Like Stars in a Cluster".
Allen, Richard Hinckley. (1899). "Star Names: Their Lore and Meaning".
"IAU Catalog of Star Names".
(September 2012). "Two "b"s in the Beehive: The Discovery of the First Hot Jupiters in an Open Cluster". [[The Astrophysical Journal Letters]].
(April 2016). "The GAPS programme with HARPS-N at TNG. XI. Pr 0211 in M 44: the first multi-planet system in an open cluster". [[Astronomy & Astrophysics]].
(December 2016). "K2 Discovers a Busy Bee: An Unusual Transiting Neptune Found in the Beehive Cluster". [[The Astronomical Journal]].
(February 2017). "Zodiacal Exoplanets in Time (ZEIT). IV. Seven Transiting Planets in the Praesepe Cluster". [[The Astronomical Journal]].
(November 2017). "New Low-mass Eclipsing Binary Systems in Praesepe Discovered by K2". [[The Astrophysical Journal]].
(November 2018). "Zodiacal Exoplanets in Time (ZEIT). VIII. A Two-planet System in Praesepe from K2 Campaign 16". [[The Astronomical Journal]].

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