Recently, the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope’s Advanced Camera has captured the image of Messier 75, a sparkling burst of stars. Messier 75 is a globular cluster, with the majority of its stars located in a large nucleus. In total, there are about 400,000 stars in the globular cluster. M75 is believed to be around 13 billion years old and sits approximately 67,500 light-years away from Earth.
Located in the western part of Sagittarius, M75 has a magnitude of 8.6. The cluster is surprisingly easy to see in binoculars and telescopes thanks to it being extremely condensed in the center. However, because of its compact nature, M75 can barely be distinguished from a star when viewed in binoculars. Telescopes that are 10 inches across or larger are needed to resolve some of the stars in the cluster.
Discovered in 1780 by Pierre Méchain, M75 was also observed by Charles Messier and added to his catalog later that year. This new image was captured with the purpose of using it in for surveys. Messier 75 is featured in Hubble’s Messier catalog, which includes some of the most fascinating objects that can be observed from Earth’s Northern Hemisphere.