The
Hyades (;
Greek Ὑάδες, also known as
Melotte 25 or
Collinder 50) is the nearest
open cluster to the
Solar System and one of the best-studied of all
star clusters. The
Hipparcos satellite, the
Hubble Space Telescope, and infrared
color-magnitude diagram fitting have been used to establish a distance of ~153 ly (47 pc) to the cluster center. The distances established by these three independent methods agree, thereby making the Hyades an important rung on the
cosmic distance ladder. The cluster consists of a roughly spherical group of hundreds of stars sharing the same age, place of origin, chemical content, and motion through space. From the perspective of observers on
Earth, the Hyades Cluster appears in the
constellation Taurus, where its brightest stars form a "V" shape along with the still brighter
red giant Aldebaran. However, Aldebaran is unrelated to the Hyades, as it is located much closer to Earth (hence its apparent brightness) and merely happens to lie along the same line of sight.