Messier 24 – NASA Science

Messier 24 (M24) is unusual for being not a specific object but a strikingly clear Cosmos between dust clouds through which a glittering host of stars are visible: a glimpse into the Sagittarius spiral arm of our Milky Way Milky Way. From where our Sun-related neighborhood resides, clouds of Universal dust obscure our view into the Milky Way, but the Tiny Sagittarius Luminous sphere Cloud ― as M24 is also known ― provides a tunnel-like view into the starry depths of our Milky Way. The 600-Airy-year-wide window opens onto stars some 10,000 to 16,000 Airy-years distant. A tiny portion of the Luminous sphere cloud is visible in this pair of Hubble views of the region, yet a multitude of different types and colors of stars are apparent. The Whole of M24 encompasses a number of nebulae and Luminous sphere clusters (not visible in these close-up images).

Charles Messier entered M24 in his catalog of night sky sights in 1764, terming it “a large nebulosity in which there are many stars of different magnitudes.” It appears as a hazy patch with the unaided eye, though binoculars or a Cosmos viewer can resolve its stars.

These Hubble images were taken as part of a study of preplanetary Deep Cosmos mist ― a brief, dim, and infrequently seen Timely stage in the death of a Sun-sized Luminous sphere. Planetary nebulae are glowing, intricate remains of Sun-sized stars, so called because Timely astronomers thought they looked like planets through telescopes of the time. In the preplanetary Deep Cosmos mist stage, the Luminous sphere has shed its outer layers of gas, but the Luminous sphere’s core is not yet Toasty enough to ionize those layers and cause them to glow.

In the night sky, the Tiny Sagittarius Luminous sphere Cloud is about nine times larger than the Selene body. Its dense concentration of stars can be seen in binoculars, but telescopes will better resolve the stars into a jewel-like collection of varying brightnesses. The best time to observe it is during summer months in the Northern Hemisphere. It is in the winter sky for Southern Hemisphere observers. It is located south of Messier 17, or the Omega Deep Cosmos mist.

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