About NGC 6996
NGC 6996 is a trash cluster. It sits in the constellation Cyg.
A stellar association: a sprawling family of hot young stars that shared a birthplace but were never gravitationally bound to each other.
Trash cluster 13 EP
NGC 6996
RA 314.1250° · Dec 45.4730° · openngc
Score breakdown
· 2 badgesTrash 15 pts → Common
- Star cluster +7
- Loose stellar association +6
Total score 13
2 more points to reach Common.
Badges
- Star cluster · +7
- Loose stellar association · +6
Trivia
What it actually is
- What it actually is. A stellar association: a sprawling family of hot young stars that shared a birthplace but were never gravitationally bound to each other.
Sense of scale
- Sense of scale. It is already coming apart. Associations dissolve into the general population of the galaxy within tens of millions of years.
Find it in the sky
- Where to look. You'll find it in the constellation Cygnus.
- Northern sky. It rides the northern half of the sky — an easier target the further north you are.
- Best time of year. It stands highest in the middle of the night around August — that's when to go looking.
How we came to know it
- The New General Catalogue. Its NGC number comes from J. L. E. Dreyer's 1888 catalogue, itself built on decades of sky sweeps by William Herschel and his sister Caroline.
Properties
- constellation
- Cyg
- dso type
- *Ass
- name
- NGC 6996
How to see it
Look for NGC 6996 in the constellation Cyg.
Like any astronomical target, NGC 6996 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 6996 is a trash cluster
NGC 6996 scores 13 points on Spacedle's rarity scale, which places it in the trash tier. Another 2 points would lift it into a rarer tier.
That score comes from 2 science badges — Star cluster and Loose stellar association — 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.