The Pleiades star cluster (M45)

The Pleiades star cluster (M45) is a group of 800 stars formed approximately 100 million years ago. The cluster is located 410 light-years away from Earth in the constellation Taurus. Bright stars Atlas and Pleione, along with their seven daughter stars, typically make up what we can see with the naked eye.

Mythology

After Atlas was forced to carry the heavens on his shoulders, Orion began to pursue all of the Pleiades, and Zeus transformed them first into doves, and then into stars to comfort their father. The constellation of Orion is said to still pursue them across the night sky today.

One of the most memorable myths involving the Pleiades is the story of how these sisters literally became stars, their catasterism. According to some versions of the tale, all seven sisters committed suicide because they were so saddened by either the fate of their father, Atlas, or the loss of their siblings, the Hyades. In turn Zeus, the ruler of the Greek gods, immortalized the sisters by placing them in the sky. There these seven stars formed the star cluster known thereafter as the Pleiades.