Fact Sheet
Crowded Neighborhood
Thousands of stars are packed tightly in the central regions of M4, one of the closest globular clusters to Earth. It is more than 6,000 light-years away. Most of its stars are old and relatively faint. The cluster contains so many stars, however, that it is faintly visible to the unaided eye as a fuzzy patch of light near Antares, the bright orange star that marks the heart of Scorpius. [NOAO/AURA/NSF]
|