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Possibly discovered by G.D. Cassini before 1711.Discovered independently by Charles Messier in 1772.

Open cluster Messier 50 (M50, NGC 2323) is a pretty and considerably brightobject located in a rich part of stars and nebulae in constellation Monoceros, near its border to Canis Major.

This cluster wasdiscovered on April 5, 1772 byCharles Messier, but possiblyG.D. Cassini had already discovered it before 1711, according to a report by his son,Jacques Cassini, in his book of 1740,Elements of Astronomy.

Open cluster M50 is probably about 3,200 light years distant. Its angulardiameter of about 15x20' therefore corresponds to a linear extension of about20 light-years, the central dense part being only about 10' or 10 light-yearsin diameter.J.E. Gore, from photographic plates taken byIsaac Roberts in 1893, has estimated its population as about 200 stars in the main body. The cluster's Trumpler type is given as I,2,m (Glyn Jones), II,3,m (Sky Catalog 2000) or II,3,r (Götz).The visual appearance is described as a "heart-shaped figure" by Mallas and Kreimer.

According to Kenneth Glyn Jones, the brightest star is of spectral type B8 andmag 9.0, while the Sky Catalog 2000 gives spectral type B6 and mag 7.85, and the age is estimated as 78 million years. 7' south of the center is a red M giant, contrasting prominently against its blue-white neighbor stars. The cluster also contains some yellow giants.

NGC Online data for M50

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Hartmut Frommert
Christine Kronberg
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Last Modification: August 30, 2007

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