NGC 2516
Open cluster in the constellation Carina
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
NGC 2516 (also known as Caldwell 96) is an open star cluster in the southern sky in the constellation Carina discovered by Abbe Lacaille in 1751-1752.[1] It is also called Southern Beehive[2][3] or the Sprinter.[4][5]
| NGC 2516 | |
|---|---|
NGC 2516 | |
| Observation data (J2000.0 epoch) | |
| Right ascension | 07h 58m 20s |
| Declination | −60° 52′ |
| Distance | 1.3 kly |
| Apparent magnitude (V) | 3.8 |
| Apparent dimensions (V) | 30.0′ |
| Physical characteristics | |
| Mass | 105 to 106[citation needed] M☉ |
| Other designations | NGC 2516, Caldwell 96, Cr 172 |
| Associations | |
| Constellation | Carina |
Description
This bright cluster itself is easily visible with the naked eye as a hazy patch, but is resolvable into stars using binoculars. It contains two 5th magnitude red giant stars and three main visual double stars: HJ 4027, HJ 4031 and I 29. A small telescope would be required to split the double stars, which are all pairs of 8-9 magnitude and 1-10 arcseconds separation.[6]
NGC 2516 and the recently discovered nearby star cluster Mamajek 2 in Ophiuchus have similar age and metallicity. Recently, kinematic evidence was presented by E. Jilinski and coauthors that suggests that these two stellar groups may have formed in the same star-forming complex some 135 million years ago.[7]
The cluster is surrounded by the 500-parsec diameter halo consisting of stars ejected from cluster.[8]
