Celestial hemisphere:  Northern  ·  Constellation: Hercules (Her)  ·  Contains:  Hercules Globular Cluster  ·  IC 4617  ·  M 13  ·  NGC 6205  ·  NGC 6207
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Messier 13: The Great Globular Cluster in Hercules, Prabhakaran
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Messier 13: The Great Globular Cluster in Hercules

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Messier 13: The Great Globular Cluster in Hercules, Prabhakaran
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Messier 13: The Great Globular Cluster in Hercules

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Description

Like shiny flakes sparkling in a snow globe, over 100,000 stars whirl within the globular cluster M13, one of the brightest star clusters visible from the Northern Hemisphere. Located 25,000 light-years from Earth with an apparent magnitude of 5.8, the cluster stars crowd into a region 150 light-years in diameter. Approaching the cluster core upwards of 100 stars could be contained in a cube just 3 light-years. For comparison, the closest star to the Sun is over 4 light-years away. These stars are so crowded that they can, at times, run into each other and even form a new star. The resulting “blue stragglers” appear to be younger than the other stars in their immediate vicinity and are of great scientific interest to astronomers. Distant background galaxies in the medium-wide field of view include NGC 6207 at the lower left. This glittering metropolis of stars in the constellation Hercules can be spotted with a pair of binoculars most easily in July .

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Messier 13: The Great Globular Cluster in Hercules, Prabhakaran