Celestial hemisphere:  Northern  ·  Constellation: Serpens (Ser)  ·  Contains:  IC 4537  ·  M 5  ·  NGC 5904
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M5, Doug Summers
M5
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M5

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M5, Doug Summers
M5
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M5

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Description

Messier 5 is located 25K light-years distant in Serpens.    It's an old globular, possibly one of the oldest in the Milky Way.   That said, M5 does have many blue stragglers, thought to be mergers of one sort or another (binaries, collisions, mass transfers, etc.).    M5 is also a large cluster, spanning 170 light-years in diameter.   The gravitational binding radius is 200 light-years.  One thing that doesn't immediately jump out, but is evident on closer inspection is that M5 isn't exactly round, but rather slightly elliptical in shape.     There are a few very small galaxies visible in the image,  IC4537 being the largest of them.

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