Messier 21

E450596

Messier 21 is a young open star cluster in the constellation Sagittarius, notable for its bright, densely packed hot stars and proximity to the Trifid Nebula.

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Statements (47)

Predicate Object
instanceOf Messier object
NGC object
open star cluster
age ~4.6 million years
angularSize 13 arcminutes
apparentBrightnessDescription moderately bright
apparentMagnitudeV 6.5
appearsIn Messier marathon lists
bestSeenFrom Northern Hemisphere NERFINISHED
bestSeenIn summer
cataloguedIn Messier Catalogue NERFINISHED
New General Catalogue NERFINISHED
constellation Sagittarius NERFINISHED
contains B-type stars
hot blue stars
pre-main-sequence stars
declination −22° 30′
discoveredBy Charles Messier NERFINISHED
discovererNationality French
discoveryDate 1764
distanceFromEarth ~1.2 kiloparsecs
~4000 light-years
estimatedNumberOfStars ~60
galacticArm Sagittarius Arm NERFINISHED
has bright member stars
dense stellar concentration
interstellarExtinction moderate
locatedIn Milky Way
locatedNear galactic plane
metallicity near-solar
near Messier 20 NERFINISHED
Trifid Nebula NERFINISHED
observedIn infrared wavelengths
optical wavelengths
otherName C 1800-225 NERFINISHED
Cr 362 NERFINISHED
M21 NERFINISHED
NGC 6531 NERFINISHED
rightAscension 18h 04m
separationFromTrifidNebula ~0.75 degrees
skyLocationDescription north of the Trifid Nebula
stellarPopulation young
structure compact core
loosely concentrated halo
TrumplerClass I3p
visibleIn binoculars
small telescopes

Referenced by (1)

Full triples — surface form annotated when it differs from this entity's canonical label.

Messier 20 nearObjectOnSky Messier 21