M18
open star cluster · in Sagittarius
4,895 light-years from Earth
A small, loose cluster of young stars, found by Messier in 1764, between the Omega Nebula and the Sagittarius Star Cloud on our sky. Its brightest stars are hot blue giants.
- 4,900 light-years (Gaia) · its stars spread over about 80 light-years
- about 20 to 50 million years old · 173 of its stars as Gaia measured them
- kind
- nebula · star cluster
- catalogue
- M18 · NGC 6613
- size
- 81 light-years across