NGC 6791

NGC 6791 is an open star cluster in Lyra , discovered by Friedrich August Theodor Winnecke in 1853

At roughly 8 billion years old with an Iron to Hydrogen abundance ratio that is more than twice that of the Sun it is one of the oldest and most metal-rich clusters in the Milky Way This is contrary to the typical rule-of-thumb where older means more metal-poor

Compounded with the fact that it has an unusually high population of stars, NGC 6791 is among the most studied clusters in the sky

In April 2009 the Kepler released the first light images from the spacecraft and NGC 6791 was one of two objects highlighted. The planet hosting star Kepler-19, discovered from Kepler data, is located approximately 5 arcminutes Northwest of NGC 6791 The star has a differing proper motion to the cluster and is also much closer, so it is unrelated.