Celestial hemisphere:  Northern  ·  Constellation: Hercules (Her)  ·  Contains:  Hercules Globular Cluster  ·  M 13  ·  NGC 6205  ·  NGC 6207
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The Hercules Globular Cluster (M13), JohnEEvans
The Hercules Globular Cluster (M13)
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The Hercules Globular Cluster (M13)

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The Hercules Globular Cluster (M13), JohnEEvans
The Hercules Globular Cluster (M13)
Powered byPixInsight

The Hercules Globular Cluster (M13)

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Description

The Hercules Globular Cluster is a cluster of several hundred thousand stars in the constellation Hercules about 25,000 light-years away.

M13 is one of about 100 globular clusters in our galaxy. The concentration of stars in the centre of M13 is about 100x the concentration of stars in the neighbourhood of our Sun. Globular clusters have some of the oldest stars in the universe. They are likely to have formed at the start of the formation of the Milky Way, so they are amongst the oldest stars. The brightest reddish stars in the cluster are ancient red giants. These aging stars have expanded to many times their original diameters and then cooled. The blue-white stars are the hottest in the cluster.

Age of Universe -> 13.8 billion years
Age of Milky Way -> 13.2 billion years.
Age of stars in M13 -> 12-13 billion years.
Age of M13 cluster -> 11.7 billion years.
Age of Solar System (incl. Earth) -> 4.5 billion years.

There are some dust lanes in the shape of a 3-bladed propeller to be found in M13. In this image the propeller is bottom right of the core.

In 1974 the Arecibo Observatory's Radio Telescope beamed a 3 minute long message towards M13, containing information about the human race, DNA, atomic numbers, Earth's position and other information.

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The Hercules Globular Cluster (M13), JohnEEvans