Messier 69

Messier 69 (M69) is one of three globular clusters that appear in the Teapot (an asterism, or formation of star) in the Sagittarius constellation. The others are M54 and M70.

There’s not a lot to distinguish M69 except that it’s one of the most metal-rich globular clusters of its age ever studied. To the great annoyance of chemists, astrophysicists call any element heavier than hydrogen or helium a “metal.” It may be that the high metal content is due to its proximity to the center of the Milky Way where it may have captured heavier elements from that dense stellar environments.

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.

M69

Distance: 29,700 light years

Number of stars: 125,000

Diameter: 84 light years

Age: 13.06 billion years