Messier 107

The best time to spot Messier 107 through a small telescope or binoculars is in July.

Distance

20,000 light-years

Apparent Magnitude

8.9

constellation

Ophiuchus

object type

Globular Cluster

M107
The NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope has captured a crowd of stars that looks rather like a stadium darkened before a show, lit only by the flashbulbs of the audience’s cameras. Yet the many stars of this object, known as Messier 107, are not a fleeting phenomenon, at least by human reckoning of time — these ancient stars have gleamed for many billions of years. This picture was obtained with the Wide Field Camera of Hubble’s Advanced Camera for Surveys. The field of view is approximately 3.4 by 3.4 arcminutes.
ESA/Hubble & NASA

​Messier 107 is one of approximately 150 globular star clusters found around the disk of the Milky Way galaxy. These spherical collections each contain hundreds of thousands of extremely old stars and are among the oldest objects in the Milky Way. The origin of globular clusters and their impact on galactic evolution remain somewhat unclear, so astronomers continue to study them through pictures such as this one, obtained by Hubble using visible and infrared observations.

As globular clusters go, M107 is not particularly dense. Visually comparing its appearance to other globular clusters, such as M53 or M54, reveals that the stars within M107 are not packed as tightly, thereby making its members more distinct, like individual fans in a stadium's stands.

Discovered in 1782 by Pierre Méchain, a French astronomer and colleague of Charles Messier, and documented independently a year later by British astronomer William Herschel, M107 was the last Messier object to be found. M104 through M109 were all discovered by Méchain and were considered “Méchain objects” until 1947, when they were added to the Messier catalog by Canadian astronomer Helen Sawyer Hogg.

M107 is located 20,000 light-years from Earth in the constellation Ophiuchus (The Serpent Bearer). It has an apparent magnitude of 8.9 and can be spotted through a small telescope most easily during July.

For more information about Hubble’s observations of M107, see:

locator star chart for M107
This star chart for M107 represents the view from mid-northern latitudes for the given month and time.
Image courtesy of Stellarium
locator star chart for M107
This star chart for M107 represents the view from mid-southern latitudes for the given month and time.
Image courtesy of Stellarium

Explore Hubble's Messier Catalog

The following pages contain some of Hubble’s best images of Messier objects.

Bright green, orange, and yellow tendrils intertwined within this egg shaped nebula.

Messier 1 (The Crab Nebula)

Better known as the Crab Nebula, Charles Messier originally mistook Messier 1 for Halley’s Comet, which inspired him to create…

A Hubble image of a ball of thousands of stars

Messier 2

Hubble's image of Messier 2 is comprised of visible and infrared wavelengths of light.

Hubble view of M3 - a ball of thousands of stars.

Messier 3

Messier 3 holds more than 500,000 stars.