Messier 2: Ancient Star Cluster Illuminated by Hubble's Eye #NASA #Space

Added: 2026-05-24

[00:00:02]Welcome to NASA's Astronomy Picture of the Day for May 23rd, 2026, titled Messier 2.

[00:00:07]After the Crab Nebula, this giant star cluster was the second entry in 18th century astronomer Charles Messier's famous list of things that were not comets.

[00:00:14]M2 was one of the largest globular star clusters then known to roam the halo of our Milky Way galaxy. Though Messier originally described it as a nebula without stars, this stunning Hubble image resolved stars across the cluster's central 40 light-years.

[00:00:26]Its population of stars numbered close to 150,000, concentrated within a total diameter of around 175 light-years.

[00:00:33]About 55,000 light-years distant toward the constellation Aquarius, this ancient denizen of the Milky Way, also known as NGC 7089, was 13 billion [music] years old.

[00:00:42]An extended stellar debris stream, a signature of past gravitational tidal disruption, was recently found to be associated with Messier 2.