Celestial hemisphere:  Northern  ·  Constellation: Sagitta (Sge)  ·  Contains:  M 71  ·  NGC 6838  ·  The star 9 Sge
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M71 Surprising Globular in Sagitta, Dave Erickson
M71 Surprising Globular in Sagitta
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M71 Surprising Globular in Sagitta

Getting plate-solving status, please wait...
M71 Surprising Globular in Sagitta, Dave Erickson
M71 Surprising Globular in Sagitta
Powered byPixInsight

M71 Surprising Globular in Sagitta

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Description

Messier 71  NGC 6838) a globular cluster in Sagitta.   M71 is designated as a very loosely concentrated globular cluster, much like M68 in Hydra.

This star cluster is about 13,000 light years away from Earth and spans 27 light-years.

M71 was for many decades thought (until the 1970s) to be a densely packed open cluster. Recent photometric photometry has detected a short "horizontal branch" in the H-R diagram (chart of temperature versus luminosity) which is characteristic of a globular cluster. The shortness of the branch explains the lack of RR Lyrae variables and is due to the globular's relatively young age of 9 to10 billion years.

I was surprised by how M71 blends into the dense background star field...

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