Messier 92

One of the oldest globular clusters in orbit around the Milky Way, Messier 92 is also one of the brightest). It can even be visible to the naked eye under excellent observing conditions.

Astrophotographers of the future may well use M92 instead of Polaris to polar-align their telescopes because in 14,000 years, it will be within one degree of our celestial pole.

It’s located 26,700 light years away in the Hercules constellation and is one of the oldest known clusters with an estimated age of 14.2 billion years. This makes it as old as the universe.

Globular clusters are ancient. They are many billions of years old—usually 10 to 13 billion years old—and are 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.

M92

Distance: 26,700 light years

Number of stars: 330,000

Diameter: 109 light years

Age: 14.2 billion years