Messier 67

Messier 67 (also known as NGC 2682 ) is a 6.9 likes bright cluster with an angular extent of 30 ' in the constellation Cancer. The cluster is found with about 500 members extremely rich and easy with binoculars.

Scientific Messier 67 is one one of the most thoroughly studied star clusters. The reason for this lies in his - for open star clusters - unusually high age, which is estimated at 3.5 to 5 billion years ago. According to the latest findings, it is approximately 4 billion years ago. This is recognizable by the position of the so-called Abzweigepunktes in the color-magnitude diagram: the cluster contains no main-sequence stars of spectral type F or hotter, and the brightest stars in the cluster are all supergiants. The cluster contains almost 200 proven white dwarfs, more than 100 sun-like stars and a lot of red giants. The metallicity of the members of the cluster indicate an age of the stars, which is comparable with that of our sun.

Many scientific investigation focused on the evolution of stars, since all members of Messier 67 are formed almost simultaneously and have the same distance to the observer on Earth. A small number of blue stragglers ( Blue Straggler ) are the only exception and its origin is not yet fully understood.