Messier 36
Messier 36 or M36, also known as NGC 1960, is an open cluster of stars in the Auriga constellation. It was discovered by Giovanni Batista Hodierna before 1654, who described it as a nebulous patch. The cluster was independently re-discovered by Guillaume Le Gentil in 1749, then Charles Messier observed it in 1764 and added it to his catalogue. M36 is at a distance of about 1,330 pc away from Earth. The cluster is very similar to the Pleiades cluster, and if it were the same distance from Earth it would be of similar magnitude.
This cluster has an angular diameter of and a core radius of. It has a mass of roughly and a linear tidal radius of. Based upon photometry, the age of the cluster has been estimated by Wu et al. as 25.1 Myr and Myr by Bell et al.. The luminosity of the stars that have not yet consumed their lithium implies an age of Myr, in good agreement these previous estimates.
M36 includes ten stars with a visual magnitude brighter than 10, and 178 down to magnitude 14. 38 members display an infrared excess, with one being particularly high. There is one candidate B-type variable star, which is 9th magnitude.Map
