Messier 4 in the Scorpion

Image taken with the PIRATE Telescope on Mount Teide - Canary Islands. Credit -The Autonomous Telescope. Open University -  telescope.org.

In mid-summer, this beautiful globular star cluster may be glimpsed from the UK in the southern horizon hugging constellation - Scorpius the Scorpion.  Messier 4 is located just to the west of the red super giant star Antares.  It is aproximately 75 light years in diameter and is at a distance of 7200 light years. It is an ancient cluster of stars and contains white dwarfs with an individual estimated age of 13 billion years.  Pulsars have been found within this stellar structure, including a pulsar in a binary pair with a white dwarf.