Class V Right ascension 18 31 23.10 Distance 29.7 kly (9.1 kpc) | Constellation Sagittarius Declination −32° 20′ 53.1″ Apparent magnitude (V) +8.31 | |
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Messier 69 (also known as M69 or NGC 6637) is a globular cluster in the constellation Sagittarius. It was discovered by Charles Messier on August 31, 1780, the same night he discovered M70. At the time, he was searching for an object described by Nicolas-Louis de Lacaille in 1751–2 and thought he had rediscovered it, but it is unclear if Nicolas-Louis de Lacaille actually described M69.
M69 is at a distance of about 29,700 light-years away from Earth and has a spatial radius of 42 light-years. It is a close neighbor of globular cluster M70, with 1,800 light-years separating the two objects; both of these clusters lie close to the galactic center. It is one of the most metal-rich globular clusters known.
References
Messier 69 Wikipedia(Text) CC BY-SA