Messier 53

Image credit: ESA, NASA

 Discovered by the German astronomer Johann Elert Bode in 1775, M53 is 59,700 light-years away, one of the most distant globular clusters from Earth. Best observed in May, it has an apparent magnitude of 8.3 and can be seen through a small telescope in the constellation Coma Berenices. Larger instruments will resolve the cluster’s individual stars.

Globular clusters are much older and larger than open clusters, so they are generally expected to contain more elderly, red stars and fewer young, blue stars. But Messier 53 has surprised astronomers with its unusual number of a type of star called blue stragglers. All the stars in a globular cluster are expected to form around the same time, so they are expected to be roughly the same age. But blue stragglers appear to be brighter and more youthful than they should be. Although their precise nature remains mysterious, these unusual objects are probably formed by close encounters, possibly collisions, between stars in the crowded centers of globular clusters like M53.

Naked Visibility:

This Messier 53 Can be seen through binoculars at 10pm on May month.

Image credit: Credits: Image courtesy of Stellarium

For more information visit M53

Previous object: Messier 52/\ Next Object: Messier 54

Thank you for visiting our website. Share this website with your friends and visit our website frequently which will be a great help for us... Once again Thank you!!