The Pleiades, which are also known as Messier 45 and the Seven Sisters, are an open star cluster containing hot B-type stars (Luminous and blue stars) and are located in the constellation of Taurus. The cluster contains many stars, from about a hundred to even a thousand. It is among the nearest star clusters to Earth and is a cluster most obvious to the naked eye in the night sky.
The cluster is filled with very bright and hot blue stars that have formed within the last 100 million years. Computer simulations have shown that the Pleiades were probably formed from a compact configuration that resembled the Orion Nebula. Astronomers estimate that the cluster will survive for almost another 250 million years, after which it will disperse due to gravitational interactions with its galactic neighborhood.
The 9 brightest stars in the Pleiades were named after the Seven Sisters of Greek mythology, which are: Sterope, Merope, Electra, Maia, Taygeta, Celaeno, and Alcyone, along with their parents Atlas and Pleione. Ages for the Pleiades of between 75 and 150 million years have been estimated.
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Galileo Galilei was the first astronomer to view the Pleiades through a telescope. He thereby discovered that the cluster contains many stars too dim to be seen with the naked eye. He published his observations, including a sketch of the Pleiades showing 36 stars, in March 1610.
The name "Pleiades" comes from Ancient Greek, meaning "to sail", because of the cluster's importance in delimiting the sailing season in the Mediterranean Sea: "the season of navigation began with their heliacal rising".
