Messier 3 Star Cluster
M3
2020
mar 14
Messier 3, or M3, is a famous globular star cluster located in the constellation Canes Venatici. It was discovered by Charles Messier in 1764 and was included as the third entry in his famous catalog of deep-sky objects.
M3 is one of the largest and brightest globular clusters visible from Earth. It is located approximately 33,900 light-years away and has a diameter of about 180 light-years. The cluster is estimated to be around 11.4 billion years old, making it one of the oldest known globular clusters in the Milky Way galaxy.
Exposure
2 hours
Globular clusters like M3 are densely packed spherical collections of hundreds of thousands to millions of stars. They typically orbit the core of a galaxy and contain some of the oldest stars in the universe. M3 is composed of several hundred thousand stars tightly bound by gravity.
