Celestial Objects
Messier 71
Star Clusters
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Messier 71, also known as M71 or NGC 6838, is a loosely concentrated cluster of stars in the constellation Sagitta, first recorded by the Swiss astronomer Philippe Loys de Cheseaux around 1745 and independently observed by Johann Gottfried Koehler in 1775. For much of the twentieth century astronomers debated whether it was a dense open cluster or a sparse globular cluster, a classification now generally settled in favor of a loose globular cluster; it lies roughly 13,000 light-years from Earth.
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