About NGC 5043
NGC 5043 is a common cluster. It lies about 1,962.2 light-years from Earth and sits in the constellation Cen.
An open cluster: a few hundred stars born together out of one collapsing cloud, still drifting along in loose formation.
Common cluster 16 EP
NGC 5043
RA 199.0611° · Dec -60.0455° · openngc
Score breakdown
· 3 badgesCommon 22 pts → Uncommon
- Star cluster +7
- Distant (over 1,000 light-years) +6
- Open cluster +3
Total score 16
6 more points to reach Uncommon.
Badges
- Star cluster · +7
- Distant (over 1,000 light-years) · +6
- Open cluster · +3
Trivia
What it actually is
- What it actually is. An open cluster: a few hundred stars born together out of one collapsing cloud, still drifting along in loose formation.
Sense of scale
- In perspective. Far away by human standards, yet still a local address inside the Milky Way's spiral arms.
- Sense of scale. Gravity is not strong enough to hold it. Within a few hundred million years these siblings will be scattered right around the galaxy.
Find it in the sky
- Where to look. You'll find it in the constellation Centaurus.
- Southern sky only. So far south it never rises for most of the northern hemisphere. To see it you'd have to travel to Chile, South Africa or Australia.
- Best time of year. It stands highest in the middle of the night around April — that's when to go looking.
Could we get there?
- Verdict. Impossible with our current technology — and the next millennium of it.
Getting there
- Aboard Voyager 1. ≈ 34.5 million years at Voyager 1's speed (17 km/s).
Properties
- constellation
- Cen
- dist ly
- 1962.1947
- dso type
- OCl
- name
- NGC 5043
- size arcmin
- 5.52
How to see it
Look for NGC 5043 in the constellation Cen.
Like any astronomical target, NGC 5043 is best seen from a dark site away from city lights, and when it is above the horizon depends on your latitude and the time of year. The visibility panel above works out tonight's viewing window for your saved location.
Why NGC 5043 is a common cluster
NGC 5043 scores 16 points on Spacedle's rarity scale, which places it in the common tier. Another 6 points would lift it into a rarer tier.
That score comes from 3 science badges — Star cluster, Distant (over 1,000 light-years) and Open cluster — each earned for a real, measurable property of the object. Rarity on Spacedle is never random: the more remarkable an object's astrophysics, the more badges it collects, the higher it scores, and the rarer it ranks.