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Globular Cluster M92 (NIRCam Detail)

Square image filled with blue, white, yellow, and red points of light of different size and brightness, most of which are stars. A scale bar at the lower right labeled 2 light-years shows that the distance between adjacent stars is a fraction of one light-year. The density of stars decreases from the upper left to lower right.

Detail of the globular cluster Messier 92 (M92) captured by Webb’s NIRCam instrument. This field of view covers the lower left quarter of the right half of the full image. Globular clusters are dense masses of tightly packed stars that all formed around the same time. In M92, there are about 300,000 stars packed into a ball about 100 light-years across. The night sky of a planet in the middle of M92 would shine with thousands of stars that appear thousands of times brighter than those in our own sky. The image shows stars at different distances from the center, which helps astronomers understand the motion of stars in the cluster, and the physics of that motion.

Read the story.

About the Object

  • R.A. Position
    R.A. PositionRight ascension – analogous to longitude – is one component of an object's position.
    17:17:07.39
  • Dec. Position
    Dec. PositionDeclination – analogous to latitude – is one component of an object's position.
    +43:08:09.4
  • Constellation
    ConstellationOne of 88 recognized regions of the celestial sphere in which the object appears.
    Hercules
  • 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.
    26,700 light-years
  • Dimensions
    DimensionsThe physical size of the object or the apparent angle it subtends on the sky.
    Image is about 9 light-years across.

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.

    This image was created with Webb data from proposal: 1334 (C. R. Weisz).

  • Instrument
    InstrumentThe science instrument used to produce the data.
    NIRCam
  • Exposure Dates
    Exposure DatesThe date(s) that the telescope made its observations and the total exposure time.
    20 June 2022
  • Filters
    FiltersThe camera filters that were used in the science observations.
    F090W, F150W, F277W, F444W
  • Object Name
    Object NameA name or catalog number that astronomers use to identify an astronomical object.
    Messier 92 (M92); NGC 6341
  • Object Description
    Object DescriptionThe type of astronomical object.
    Globular star cluster
  • Release Date
    February 22, 2023
  • Credit
    Image Processing: NASA, ESA, CSA, Alyssa Pagan (STScI)

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Square image filled with blue, white, yellow, and red points of light of different size and brightness, most of which are stars. A scale bar at the lower right labeled 2 light-years shows that the distance between adjacent stars is a fraction of one light-year. The density of stars decreases from the upper left to lower right.
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 James Webb Space Telescope using the NIRCam instrument. Several filters were used to sample specific 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: F090W, Cyan: F150W, Yellow: F277W, Red: F444W

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Details

Last Updated
Aug 28, 2025
Contact
Media

Laura Betz
NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center
Greenbelt, Maryland
laura.e.betz@nasa.gov

Image Processing Credit

NASA, ESA, CSA, Alyssa Pagan (STScI)

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