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New ESO image of star cluster Messier 7
A new image from ESO’s La Silla Observatory in Chile shows
the bright star cluster Messier 7. Easily spotted with the naked eye close to
the tail of the constellation of Scorpius, it is one of the most prominent open
clusters of stars in the sky — making it an important astronomical research
target.
Messier 7, also known as NGC 6475, is a brilliant cluster of
about 100 stars located some 800 light-years from Earth. In this new picture
from the Wide Field Imager on the MPG/ESO 2.2-metre telescope it stands out
against a very rich background of hundreds of thousands of fainter stars, in
the direction of the centre of the Milky Way.