The Pleiades Star Cluster, or Messier object 45, is also called the Seven Sisters, due to the 7 main bright stars in the cluster. This photo of the stars shows clearly that they are near bright blue, reflective nebulae. These nebulae are colored as such from the reflection of the stars within them. The Pleiades are around 380 light years from Earth, according to parallax measurements. About 3000 stars exist in the cluster, although only the main seven can be seen with the naked eye. These seven stars, however, are so bright that they are nearly always visible, even from a brightly lit city (in winter in the Northern Hemisphere and summer in the Southern Hemisphere). Greek mythology says that these seven stars are the daughters of Atlas and Pleione. The cluster is estimated to be about 100 million years old and will survive for another 250 million years before dispersing due to gravitational interactions with surrounding objects.
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