Messier 22

cluster

Messier 22 — one of the nearest and brightest globular clusters, ~10,400 light-years away toward the galactic bulge in Sagittarius. It hosts two candidate stellar-mass black holes and a rare globular-cluster planetary nebula.

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Science

Classification

Type: Globular star cluster
Distance: ~10,400 light-years
Diameter: ~100 light-years
Age: ~12 billion years
Notable: Two candidate stellar-mass black holes

How we know

Note: A real Hubble image at M22's real position; ~100 ly across, shown enlarged as a marker, as seen from Earth.

Discovery & history

Name: Messier's 22nd catalogue entry.

One of the first globulars discovered, by Abraham Ihle in 1665; catalogued by Messier in 1764.

Images

Messier 22 — a bright globular toward the galactic bulge (Hubble) — ESA/Hubble & NASA (CC BY 4.0) · Wikimedia Commons

Images from open archives · credit shown per image