Constellation Scutum Declination −16° 58′ 36″ Apparent magnitude (V) not visible | Right ascension 18 18 30 Distance 13–26 kly (4–8 kpc) | |
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Apparent dimensions (V) 39″ (half-light diameter) | ||
Mercer 3 is a heavily obscured globular cluster embedded in the disk of the Milky Way galaxy. It was discovered in 2008 in the data obtained by 2MASS and GLIMPSE infrared surveys. The cluster is located in the Scutum constellation. It had avoided detection for such a long time due to the extremely strong foreground extinction in its direction reaching 24 magnitudes in the visible light. Mercer 3 is probably situated at the distance from 4 to 8 kpc from the Sun and has a half-light radius of 0.7–1.5 pc.
Mercer 3 is an old globular cluster having the age of about 12 billion years. The mass of cluster is estimated at 2–3 hundred thousand solar masses.
References
Mercer 3 Wikipedia(Text) CC BY-SA