Celestial hemisphere:  Southern  ·  Constellation: Sagittarius (Sgr)  ·  Contains:  M 55  ·  NGC 6809
Messier 55, Geoff
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Messier 55

Messier 55, Geoff
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Messier 55

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Description

Messier 55 , a globular cluster in Sagittarius, was discovered by Nicolas Louis de Lacaille in June 16, 1752 while observing from South Africa. Starting in 1754, Charles Messier made several attempts to find this object from Paris, France, but the low declination meant it never rose sufficiently far above the horizon to allow for easy observation. He finally observed and catalogued it in 1778.

M55 is 17,600 light-years away. It has a mass of about 269,000 Suns. As with other Milky Way globular clusters, it has a low abundance of elements other than hydrogen and helium compared to the Sun. The proportion of these elements is about 1.1% compared to that of the Sun.

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