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The globular star cluster known as M92 contains several hundred thousand stars. It is located about 26,000 light years from our solar system. 

This star cluster is located within the constellation of Hercules.   It is visible in small telescopes. In 1781 the French comet hunter, Charles Messier, made it the ninety second, M 92, of his now famous catalog.

This image was captured by David Thompson of the California Institute of Technology. He used the Palomar Observatory's 200-inch Hale Telescope with its Wide-field Infrared Camera (WIRC).

The research was based on observations obtained at the Hale Telescope, Palomar Observatory, as part of a collaborative agreement between the California Institute of Technology, its divisions Caltech Optical Observatories and the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (operated for NASA), and Cornell University.   

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