Uncommon cluster 29 EP

NGC 6416

RA 266.0833° · Dec -32.3610° · openngc

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Score breakdown

· 5 badges

29 pts · Uncommon

Uncommon 34 pts → Rare

Coming towards us +10
Star cluster +7
Distant (over 1,000 light-years) +6
Open cluster +3
On the zodiac +3

Total score 29

5 more points to reach Rare.

Badges

Star cluster · +7
Distant (over 1,000 light-years) · +6
Open cluster · +3
On the zodiac · +3
Coming towards us · +10

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 Scorpius.
Southern sky. It rides the southern half of the sky — an easier target the further south you are.
Best time of year. It stands highest in the middle of the night around June — 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. ≈ 62.2 million years at Voyager 1's speed (17 km/s).

Properties

constellation: Sco
dist ly: 3537.4837
dso type: OCl
name: NGC 6416
radial velocity kms: -11
size arcmin: 6.9

Nearby objects

About NGC 6416

NGC 6416 is an uncommon cluster. It lies about 3,537.5 light-years from Earth and sits in the constellation Sco.

An open cluster: a few hundred stars born together out of one collapsing cloud, still drifting along in loose formation.

How to see it

Look for NGC 6416 in the constellation Sco.

Like any astronomical target, NGC 6416 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 6416 is an uncommon cluster

NGC 6416 scores 29 points on Spacedle's rarity scale, which places it in the uncommon tier. Another 5 points would lift it into a rarer tier.

That score comes from 5 science badges — Star cluster, Distant (over 1,000 light-years), Open cluster, On the zodiac and Coming towards us — 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.