Messier 62 – The Flickering Globular Cluster

Most globular clusters are near spherical in shape. Not Messier 62 (M62). In the image, you can see that it’s stretched out on the right side. Scientists think this is because it’s so close to the galactic center—as little as 5,500 light years from it—and the tidal forces from the extreme stellar population in the galactic core are stretching it into a comet-like shape. M62 is so dense that stellar interactions occur regularly. In 2013, researched discovered a stellar-mass black hole in M62—the first such object ever to be discovered in a globular cluster.

Globular clusters are ancient. They are many billions of years old—usually 10 to 13 billion years old—almost as old as the universe itself. The stars they contain tend to be very old as well, because star formation inside the cluster has largely ceased. The formation of globular clusters is not well understood. Current research leans toward the idea that they formed from very dense molecular clouds in the early universe. Some larger globular clusters may once have been dwarf galaxies whose larger star populations were stripped away from the core by larger galaxies.

M62 Facts

Distance: 22,000 light years

Number of stars: 150,000

Diameter: 100 light years

Age: 12 billion years