NGC 361 is an open cluster in the Small Magellanic Cloud. It is located in the constellation Tucana. It was discovered on September 6, 1826, by James Dunlop. It was described by Dreyer as "very very faint, pretty large, very little extended, very gradually brighter middle."[4] At an aperture of 31.0 arcseconds, its apparent V-band magnitude is 12.24, but at this wavelength, it has 0.40 magnitudes of interstellar extinction.[2]

NGC 361
NGC 361 with DECam
Credit: Digitized Sky Survey
Observation data (J2000 epoch)
Right ascension01h 02m 10.1s[1]
Declination−71° 36′ 17″[1]
Distance180000[1]
Apparent magnitude (V)12.24[2]
Apparent dimensions (V)2.6′ × 2.6′[3]
Physical characteristics
Mass2.15×105[2] M
Estimated age8.10±1.20 Gyr[2]
Other designationsESO 051-SC 012.[1]
Associations
ConstellationTucana
See also: Open cluster, List of open clusters

NGC 361 is about 8.1 billion years old. Its estimated mass is 2.15×105 M, and its total luminosity is 1.04×105 L, leading to a mass-to-luminosity ratio of 2.07 M/L.[2] All else equal, older star clusters have higher mass-to-luminosity ratios; that is, they have lower luminosities for the same mass.[2]

See also

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References

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  1. ^ a b c d "NASA/IPAC Extragalactic Database". Results for NGC 0361. Retrieved September 2, 2016.
  2. ^ a b c d e f Song, Ying-Yi; Mateo, Mario; Bailey, John I.; Walker, Matthew G.; Roederer, Ian U.; Olszewski, Edward W.; Reiter, Megan; Kremin, Anthony (2021). "Dynamical masses and mass-to-light ratios of resolved massive star clusters – II. Results for 26 star clusters in the Magellanic Clouds". Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society. 504 (3): 4160–4191. arXiv:2104.06882. doi:10.1093/mnras/stab1065.
  3. ^ "NGC 361". SIMBAD. Centre de données astronomiques de Strasbourg. Retrieved January 1, 2017.
  4. ^ "New General Catalog Objects: NGC 350 - 399". Cseligman. Retrieved November 20, 2016.
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