Color-composite image of the Pleiades from the Digitized Sky Survey
Color-composite image of the Pleiades from the Digitized Sky Survey
Credit: NASA, ESA, AURA/Caltech, Palomar Observatory
The Pleiades (also known as M45 or the Seven Sisters) is an open cluster in the constellation of Taurus. It is among the nearest to the Earth of all open clusters, probably the best known and certainly the most striking to the naked eye.