| NGC 1624 | |
| Credit: | IGAPS |
| Epoch: | J2000 |
| Constellation: | Perseus |
| Ra: | [1] |
| Dist Pc: | [2] |
| Appmag V: | 11.8 |
| Age: | <4 Myr |
| Names: | Cr 53, C 0436+503, OCl 403, Tribble Nebula |
NGC 1624, also known as Sh2-212[3] in the Sharpless catalog, is a very young open cluster in the constellation Perseus inside an emission nebula. It was discovered by German-British astronomer William Herschel in 1790. NGC 1624 is about 20,000 ly (6,000 pc) from Earth, and latest estimates give it an age of less than 4 million years.[2] Its apparent magnitude is 11.8,[1] and apparent diameter is about 3.0 arc minutes.[4] Its celestial location is right ascension (α) and declination (δ) .[1] It is potentially an area of massive star formation.[5]
According to Robert Trumpler's classification of open clusters, this cluster contains fewer than 50 stars (letter p) with a high concentration (I) and whose magnitudes are distributed over an average interval (number 2). The letter n at the end (I2pn) means that the cluster is inside a nebula.
Along with nearby emission nebula Sh2-211[6] it makes up what has become known as the Tribble Nebulae,[7] so called because they look like the furry creatures first introduced in the Star Trek episode "The Trouble with Tribbles".