The Globular Cluster Messier 62

Messier 62 (also known as NGC 6266) is one of the most irregularly shaped globular clusters known. Messier 62 is located at a distance of about 22 500 light-years in the constellation of Ophiuchus (the Serpent Bearer).

Messier 62 extends over 100 light-years, appearing to us as about half of the full Moon in size. The conspicuously irregular shape of Messier 62 may be a result of its location a mere 6000 light-years from the Galactic Centre, where strong tidal forces likely twist this group of stars.

Already in the 1970s, studies revealed that Messier 62 hosts at least 89 variable stars of the RR Lyrae type, a large number of X-ray sources and millisecond pulsars rotating in the binary systems of stars.

French astronomer Charles Messier, best known for his famous Messier Catalogue, found this cluster on 7 June 1771 and recorded it as entry number 62, even though he did not determine its exact position until 4 June 1779. As with many of Messier's globular clusters, it was the English astronomer Sir William Herschel who first resolved the individual stars.