Messier 6
E473830
Messier 6, also known as the Butterfly Cluster, is a bright open star cluster in the constellation Scorpius visible to the naked eye under dark skies.
All labels observed (2)
How this entity was disambiguated
This entity first appeared as the object of triple T4835395 — resolving that mention is where its identity was fixed. The disambiguator weighed these candidate entities and picked the highlighted one (or “None”, minting a new entity). This is how homonymy is resolved: the same surface form can point to different entities.
NED1
Entity disambiguation (via context triple)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: Messier 6 Context triple: [Scorpius, containsDeepSkyObject, Messier 6]
-
A.
Messier 26
Messier 26 is an open star cluster located in the constellation Scutum, notable for its relatively compact grouping of stars and moderate brightness.
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B.
Messier 45
Messier 45, commonly known as the Pleiades, is a prominent open star cluster in the constellation Taurus, easily visible to the naked eye and famous in many cultures worldwide.
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C.
Messier 21
Messier 21 is a young open star cluster in the constellation Sagittarius, notable for its bright, densely packed hot stars and proximity to the Trifid Nebula.
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D.
Messier 8
Messier 8, also known as the Lagoon Nebula, is a large, bright emission nebula and active star-forming region visible in the constellation Sagittarius.
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E.
Messier 69
Messier 69 is a dense, metal-rich globular star cluster located in the constellation Sagittarius near the center of the Milky Way.
- F. None of above. chosen
- G. Unsure - the case is ambiguous/there is not enough information to decide.
NED2
Entity disambiguation (via description)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: Messier 6 Target entity description: Messier 6, also known as the Butterfly Cluster, is a bright open star cluster in the constellation Scorpius visible to the naked eye under dark skies.
-
A.
Messier 26
Messier 26 is an open star cluster located in the constellation Scutum, notable for its relatively compact grouping of stars and moderate brightness.
-
B.
Messier 45
Messier 45, commonly known as the Pleiades, is a prominent open star cluster in the constellation Taurus, easily visible to the naked eye and famous in many cultures worldwide.
-
C.
Messier 21
Messier 21 is a young open star cluster in the constellation Sagittarius, notable for its bright, densely packed hot stars and proximity to the Trifid Nebula.
-
D.
Messier 8
Messier 8, also known as the Lagoon Nebula, is a large, bright emission nebula and active star-forming region visible in the constellation Sagittarius.
-
E.
Messier 69
Messier 69 is a dense, metal-rich globular star cluster located in the constellation Sagittarius near the center of the Milky Way.
- F. None of above. chosen
Statements (47)
| Predicate | Object |
|---|---|
| instanceOf |
Messier object
ⓘ
NGC object ⓘ open star cluster ⓘ |
| age |
51–95 million years
ⓘ
~100 million years ⓘ |
| alternativeName |
Butterfly Cluster
NERFINISHED
ⓘ
M6 NERFINISHED ⓘ NGC 6405 NERFINISHED ⓘ |
| angularSize | 25 arcminutes ⓘ |
| apparentMagnitudeV | 4.2 ⓘ |
| bestSeenFromHemisphere |
Southern Hemisphere
NERFINISHED
ⓘ
low-latitude Northern Hemisphere ⓘ |
| bestSeenInMonth | July ⓘ |
| brightestStarApparentMagnitude | ~6.0 ⓘ |
| brightestStarSpectralType | B4 ⓘ |
| cataloguedBy | Charles Messier NERFINISHED ⓘ |
| catalogueDesignation | C 1737-325 NERFINISHED ⓘ |
| contains |
B-type main-sequence stars
ⓘ
giant stars ⓘ |
| containsVariableStars | true ⓘ |
| declination | −32° 13′ ⓘ |
| discoveredBy | Giovanni Battista Hodierna NERFINISHED ⓘ |
| discoveryDate | before 1654 ⓘ |
| discoveryMethod | telescopic observation ⓘ |
| distanceFromEarth |
1600 light-years
ⓘ
~490 parsecs ⓘ |
| galacticLatitude | −0.6° ⓘ |
| galacticLongitude | −0.2° ⓘ |
| hasColor |
blue
ⓘ
yellow ⓘ |
| hasShapeAppearance | butterfly-like ⓘ |
| locatedIn |
Milky Way
ⓘ
Sagittarius Arm NERFINISHED ⓘ |
| locatedInConstellation | Scorpius NERFINISHED ⓘ |
| locatedInRegionOfSky | tail of Scorpius ⓘ |
| locatedNearOnSky | Messier 7 NERFINISHED ⓘ |
| messierNumber | 6 ⓘ |
| ngcNumber | 6405 ⓘ |
| numberOfStars |
80
ⓘ
>80 ⓘ |
| observationalClass | III 2 m ⓘ |
| observedInWavelength | optical ⓘ |
| partOf |
Messier catalogue
NERFINISHED
ⓘ
New General Catalogue NERFINISHED ⓘ |
| rightAscension | 17h 40m ⓘ |
| visibleFromLatitude | up to +55° ⓘ |
| visibleToNakedEye | true ⓘ |
How these facts were elicited
The pipeline generated the facts above by prompting gpt-5.1 with this entity's name + description and the instruction below.
Instruction
You are a knowledge base construction expert. Given a subject entity and a description of it, return factual statements that you know for the subject as a JSON list of dictionaries(triples), where keys must be "subject", "predicate" and "object". The number of facts may be very high, between 25 to 50 or more, for very popular subjects. For less popular subjects, the number of facts can be very low, like 5 or 10. # Requirements - If you don't know the subject at all, return an empty list. - If the subject is not a named entity, return an empty list. - Include at least one triple where predicate is "instanceOf". - Do not get too wordy. - Separate several objects into multiple triples with one object.
Input
Subject: Messier 6 Description of subject: Messier 6, also known as the Butterfly Cluster, is a bright open star cluster in the constellation Scorpius visible to the naked eye under dark skies.
Referenced by (2)
Full triples — surface form annotated when it differs from this entity's canonical label.
this entity surface form:
Messier 7