M92 is a bright, ancient globular cluster in Hercules, containing roughly 330,000 old stars in the halo of the Milky Way.
What It Is
M92, also cataloged as NGC 6341, is a bright globular cluster in Hercules. It is a dense, gravitationally bound swarm of old stars orbiting in the halo of the Milky Way.
History
Johann Elert Bode discovered M92 in 1777, and Charles Messier added it to his catalog in 1781. It is often overlooked because the famous Hercules Globular Cluster, M13, is nearby, but M92 is itself one of the brighter and older globular clusters in the Milky Way.
Science Notes
- NASA lists M92 at about 27,000 light-years away in Hercules with an apparent magnitude of 6.3.
- M92 contains roughly 330,000 stars and is tightly packed, especially toward its core.
- Its stars are metal-poor, dominated by hydrogen and helium with only traces of heavier elements, which is a signature of very old globular clusters.
- distance
- ~27,000 light-years
- stars
- ~330,000 stars
- apparentMagnitude
- +6.3
- constellation
- Hercules
- age
- one of the oldest Milky Way globular clusters; nearly as old as the universe
- clusterType
- metal-poor globular cluster
- coordinates
- RA 17h 17m 17s, Dec +43 deg 08 min 11 sec
