Messier 107

​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: