Fact Sheet
Stellar Nursing Home
The globular cluster M22 is just one of several bright star clusters visible in the constellation Sagittarius, which scoots low across the southern sky on summer nights. M22 contains several hundred thousand stars packed into a region of space just a few dozen light-years in diameter. Its stars are some of the oldest in the galaxy, at more than 10 billion years. Many of the other clusters of Sagittarius are at the other end of the age scale: stellar nurseries where new stars are being born. [Credit: N.A. Sharp, REU Program/NOAO/AURA/NSF]
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