Messier 6

Messier 6

Image Credit &
Copyright:

Xinran Li

Explanation:

The sixth object in
Charles Messier’s
famous catalog of things which
are not comets, Messier 6 is a galactic or
open star cluster.

A gathering of 100 stars or so, all around 100 million years young,
M6 lies some 1,600 light-years
away toward the central Milky Way
in the constellation Scorpius.

Also cataloged as NGC 6405, the pretty star cluster’s
outline suggests its popular moniker, the
Butterfly Cluster.

Surrounded by diffuse reddish emission from the region’s hydrogen gas
the cluster’s mostly hot and
therefore blue stars are near the center of
this colorful cosmic snapshot.

But the brightest cluster member is a cool K-type giant star.

Designated BM Scorpii
it shines with a yellow-orange hue,
seen near the end of one of the butterfly’s antennae.

This telescopic field of view
spans nearly 2 Full Moons on the sky.

That’s 25 light-years at the estimated distance of Messier 6.