Globular Star Cluster M5

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The globular star cluster known as M5 likely contains a few hundred thousand stars. It is thought to lie some 24,500 light years from our solar system and is perhaps our galaxy's oldest known globular star cluster.    

This star cluster is located within the constellation of Serpens.   1764 the French comet hunter Charles Messier made it the fifth object, M 5, of his now famous catalog.

This image was obtained using the Palomar Observatory's 60-inch Telescope by and Ben Weiss and Antonin Bouchez of the California Institute of Technology.   This color image is composed of three images taken with g, r, and i filters displayed as blue, green, red.  

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