Lambda Orionis Cluster

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title: "Lambda Orionis Cluster" type: doc version: 1 created: 2026-02-28 author: "Wikipedia contributors" status: active scope: public tags: ["orion-(constellation)", "open-clusters"] description: "Open star cluster in the constellation Orion" topic_path: "general/orion-constellation" source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lambda_Orionis_Cluster" license: "CC BY-SA 4.0" wikipedia_page_id: 0 wikipedia_revision_id: 0

::summary Open star cluster in the constellation Orion ::

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

Field	Value
name	Lambda Orionis Cluster
image	Collinder 69.jpg
epoch	J2000
constellation	Orion
ra
dec
dist_ly	400 pc
appmag_v	2.8
age	5.0 Myr
names	Lambda Ori Association, Collinder 69
::

| name = Lambda Orionis Cluster | image = Collinder 69.jpg | caption = | credit = | epoch = J2000 | constellation = Orion | ra = | dec = | dist_ly = 400 pc | appmag_v = 2.8 | size_v = | mass_msol = | age = 5.0 Myr | notes = | names = Lambda Ori Association, Collinder 69 The Lambda Orionis Cluster (also known as the Collinder 69) is an open star cluster located north-west of the star Betelgeuse in the constellation of Orion. It is about five million years old and roughly 400 pc away from the Sun. Included within the cluster is the double star Meissa (Lambda Orionis). With the rest of Orion, it is visible from the middle of August in the morning sky, to late April before Orion becomes too close to the Sun to be seen well. It can be seen from both the Northern Hemisphere and the Southern Hemisphere.

Description

The cluster is following an orbit through the Milky Way that has a period of 227.4 million years with an ellipticity of 0.06, carrying it as far as 8.6 kpc from the Galactic Center, and as close as 7.7 kpc. The inclination of the orbit carries it up to 80 pc away from the galactic plane. On average it crosses the plane every 33.3 million years.

The star cluster is young and contains a large number of low-mass stars, some T Tauri stars and brown dwarfs. One notable member is LOri167, which is a wide binary consisting of a potential planetary-mass object and a brown dwarf. Observations of the star cluster with the Spitzer Space Telescope have shown that 25% of the low-mass stars and 40% of the substellar objects are surrounded by a circumstellar disk. Two of these being actively photoevaporated by Meissa.

Molecular ring and cluster evolution

::figure[src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/d4/Orion's_Big_Head_Revealed_in_Infrared.jpg" caption="WISE"] ::

The cluster might have formed in the central region of an elongated cloud, which is supported by the distribution of pre-main-sequence star candidates, which are concentrated in the cluster and nearby regions in an elongated shape. Massive OB stars and low-mass stars formed in the central regions of these clouds. The low-mass stars closest to the massive stars likely lost their circumstellar disks due to photoevaporation. Many low-mass stars parsecs away were unaffected by this and represent the current population of low-mass stars with a circumstellar disk. The cluster is surrounded by a large molecular ring, called the Lambda Orionis ring. This was interpreted as a remnant of a supernova that exploded one million years ago. The supernova blast encountered the clouds and gas in the region and the blast dispersed the parent core, creating the molecular ring.

References

• Sky Atlas 2000.0 Second Edition

References

1. (February 2023). "cl Collinder 69".
2. (August 2004). "The Substellar Population of the Young Cluster λ Orionis". The Astrophysical Journal.
3. (July 2007). "Spitzer: Accretion in Low-Mass Stars and Brown Dwarfs in the λ Orionis Cluster*". The Astrophysical Journal.
4. (2007-06-01). "The young, wide and very low mass visual binary Lambda Orionis 167". Astronomy & Astrophysics.
5. (July 2019). "Photoevaporation of Two Proplyds in the Star Cluster Collinder 69 Discovered with Spitzer MIPS". Research Notes of the AAS.
6. (January 2002). "A Photometric Study of the Young Stellar Population throughout the λ Orionis Star-forming Region". The Astronomical Journal.

::callout[type=info title="Wikipedia Source"] This article was imported from Wikipedia and is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Content has been adapted to SurfDoc format. Original contributors can be found on the article history page. ::