Palomar 6
Globular cluster in the constellation Ophiuchus
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Palomar 6 is a loose globular cluster in the constellation Ophiuchus that belongs to the Milky Way galaxy. It is a member of the Palomar Globular Clusters group and is located about 25,000 light-years (7,700 parsecs) away from the Sun.[2] It formed in what would become the bulge of the Milky Way and is similar to other old-bulge globular clusters such as Messier 62, NGC 6522, NGC 6558, and Haute-Provence 1.[2]
| Palomar 6 | |
|---|---|
| |
| Observation data (J2000 epoch) | |
| Class | XI |
| Constellation | Ophiuchus |
| Right ascension | 17h 43m 42.20s[1] |
| Declination | −26° 13′ 21.0″[1] |
| Distance | 25.02 ± 0.62 kly (7.67 ± 0.19 kpc)[2] |
| Physical characteristics | |
| Mass | 2.28×105[3] M☉ |
| Metallicity | [Fe/H] = –0.91[3] dex |
| Estimated age | 12.4 ± 0.9 Gyr[2] |
| Other designations | ESO 520-21, GCl 75, 1740-262[1] |
First discovered on the National Geographic Society – Palomar Observatory Sky Survey plates by Robert G. Harrington and Fritz Zwicky,[4] it was catalogued as a globular cluster, and was thought to be one of four globulars known to contain a planetary nebula. A paper published in 2024, however, showed that the proper motion of the central star of the nebula JaFu 1 differs from that of the cluster with high statistical significance, thus confirming that the nebula is not located within the cluster.[5]
