© 2022 Michael A. Siniscalchi
NGC 6791
Open Cluster in Lyra
RA:19h 20m 46s Dec: +37 43' 59" Distance - ~13,000 ly Size 16'
Wikipedia-
NGC 6791 is an open star cluster in the Lyra constellation. It was discovered by Friedrich August Theodor Winnecke in 1853. At roughly 8 billion years old, and with an iron to hydrogen abundance ratio that is more than twice that of the Sun, it is one of the oldest and most metal-rich clusters in the Milky Way. This is contrary to the typical rule-of-thumb where older means more metal-poor. Compounded with the fact that it has an unusually high population of stars, NGC 6791 is among the most studied clusters in the sky.
Among the dimmest stars in the cluster are groups of white dwarfs that are 6 billion years old and another group that appear to be 4 billion years old. The ages are out of sync with those of the cluster's normal stars, which are 8 billion years old. This seeming contradiction in age for this cluster has been studied and a solution proposed with age of about 8 billion years.
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NGC 6791 position shown relative to our location (Sun) in the Milky Way Galaxy
Age: 8,318 million years
Galatic Longitude: 70
Galatic Latitude: 10.9
Distance from Galatic Plane:3,162 ly above the galatic plane
Above image and info provided by Our Galaxy 3D Atlas application and used with permission by
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