Messier 56

Image credit: ESA, NASA

 Charles Messier discovered the globular cluster M56 in 1779. The cluster is located 33,000 light-years away from Earth in the constellation Lyra. It has an apparent magnitude of 8.3 and can be observed with a small telescope most easily in August.

This beautiful Hubble image of M56 was constructed using both visible and infrared observations. Using various observations by Hubble, astronomers have been able to study the chemical composition of the cluster. M56 has relatively few elements heavier than hydrogen and helium, which is a sign that its stars were born early in the universe’s history before many of the elements in existence today were formed in significant quantities.

Astronomers have found that most of clusters with this type of chemical makeup lie along a plane in the Milky Way’s halo. This suggests that such clusters were captured from a satellite galaxy, rather than being the oldest members of the Milky Way’s globular cluster system as astronomers had previously thought.

Naked Visibilty:

This object is 33,000 light-years away from Earth and defiantly not able to see with naked eyes, but this can seen through small telescope during August.

Image credit:Credits: Image courtesy of Stellarium

Previous object: Messier 55/\ Next object: Messier 57

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