Astronomy: Galaxy Messier 7

M7 is the seventh of Charles Messier's list of bright diffuse objects in the sky. It contains about 100 stars in total, is about 200 million years old, spans 25 light years across, and lies 1.000 light years away. This color picture was taken in 2005 at the Kitt Peak National Observatory in Arizona, USA. But the M7 star cluster has been known since ancient times, being noted by Ptolemy in the year 130 AD and observed by Messier in 1764. Also visible is a dark dust cloud near the bottom of the frame, and literally millions of unrelated stars towards the Galactic center of our Milky Way Galaxy. Related subjects >> Messier catalog of 110 deep sky objects >> Charles Messier >> Milky Way Galaxy

The star cluster M7.