aka the Seven Sisters, is an open star cluster containing middle-aged, hot B-type stars in the north-west of the constellation Taurus.
It is among the star clusters nearest to Earth, it is the nearest Messier object to Earth, and is the cluster most obvious to the naked eye in the night sky.

The cluster is dominated by hot blue and luminous stars that have formed within the last 100 million years.
Reflection nebulae around the brightest stars were once thought to be left over material from their formation, but are now considered likely to be an unrelated dust cloud in the
interstellar medium through which the stars are currently passing.