M3

globular cluster · in Canes Venatici

33,200 light-years from Earth

Some 400,000 Suns' worth of stars about 11 billion years old, and the first object in his catalogue that Messier discovered himself (1764). It holds about 240 RR Lyrae stars, more than almost any other globular cluster, each brightening and fading every half a day or so.

• 33,200 light-years · about 170 light-years across
• about 240 of its stars pulse in brightness

kind

nebula · star cluster

catalogue

M3 · NGC 5272

size

174 light-years across