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Globular Cluster Messier 4 (M4)

Thousands of bright points of light on a black background fill the field of view. They appear somewhat more concentrated near the center of the image. They have a variety of colors, with the most prominent stars appearing blue or yellow-orange. The brighter stars also display four diffraction spikes.

A Hubble Space Telescope image of the globular star cluster, Messier 4. The cluster is a dense collection of several hundred thousand stars. Astronomers suspect that an intermediate-mass black hole, weighing as much as 800 times the mass of our Sun, is lurking, unseen, at its core.

About the Object

  • R.A. Position
    R.A. PositionRight ascension – analogous to longitude – is one component of an object's position.
    16:23:35.48
  • Dec. Position
    Dec. PositionDeclination – analogous to latitude – is one component of an object's position.
    -26:31:29.48
  • Constellation
    ConstellationOne of 88 recognized regions of the celestial sphere in which the object appears.
    Scorpius
  • Distance
    DistanceThe physical distance from Earth to the astronomical object. Distances within our solar system are usually measured in Astronomical Units (AU). Distances between stars are usually measured in light-years. Interstellar distances can also be measured in parsecs.
    7,000 light-years
  • Dimensions
    DimensionsThe physical size of the object or the apparent angle it subtends on the sky.
    Image is 3.5 arcmin across (about 7 light-years)

About the Data

  • Data Description
    Data DescriptionProposal: A description of the observations, their scientific justification, and the links to the data available in the science archive.
    Science Team: The astronomers who planned the observations and analyzed the data. "PI" refers to the Principal Investigator.

    The HST observations include those from program 10775 (A. Sarajedini)

  • Instrument
    InstrumentThe science instrument used to produce the data.
    ACS/WFC
  • Exposure Dates
    Exposure DatesThe date(s) that the telescope made its observations and the total exposure time.
    March 2006
  • Filters
    FiltersThe camera filters that were used in the science observations.
    F435W, F606W, F814W
  • Object Name
    Object NameA name or catalog number that astronomers use to identify an astronomical object.
    M 4, Messier 4, NGC 6121
  • Object Description
    Object DescriptionThe type of astronomical object.
    Globular Cluster
  • Release Date
    May 23, 2023
  • Science Release
    NASA’s Hubble Hunts for Intermediate-Sized Black Hole Close to Home
    Read the release
  • Credits
    NASA, ESA, Eduardo Vitral (STScI)

Downloads

  • Full Res (For Display), 4165 × 4132
    png (35.09 MB)
  • Full Res (For Print), 4165 × 4132
    tif (47.38 MB)
  • 2000 × 1984
    png (7.88 MB)
Thousands of bright points of light on a black background fill the field of view. They appear somewhat more concentrated near the center of the image. They have a variety of colors, with the most prominent stars appearing blue or yellow-orange. The brighter stars also display four diffraction spikes.
Color Info
Color InfoA brief description of the methods used to convert telescope data into the color image being presented.

These images are a composite of separate exposures acquired by the ACS/WFC instrument on the Hubble Space Telescope. Several filters were used to sample wide and narrow wavelength ranges. The color results from assigning different hues (colors) to each monochromatic (grayscale) image associated with an individual filter. In this case, the assigned colors are: Blue: F435W, Green: F606W, Red: F814W

Related Images & Videos

Hundreds of small white blobs and tiny yellow dots on a black background.

Computer Representation of the Stellar Motions in the Core of M4

This is a simulation of the motions of stars around a suspected black hole in the core of the globular cluster M4. It is based on the " HST Legacy Survey of Galactic Globular Clusters: Shedding UV Light on Their Populations and Formation ,” which includes stellar clusters'...

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Details

Last Updated
Mar 10, 2025
Contact
Media

Claire Andreoli
NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center
Greenbelt, Maryland
claire.andreoli@nasa.gov

Science Credit

NASA, ESA, Eduardo Vitral (STScI)

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