- Messier 92 (also known as M92, M 92, or NGC 6341) is a globular cluster of stars in the northern constellation of Hercules.
- M92 is approaching us at 112 km/sec.
- Its [Messier 92] true diameter is 108 ly, and may have a mass corresponding to 330,000 suns.
- It [Messier 92] was discovered by Johann Elert Bode on December 27, 1777, then published in the Berliner Astronomisches Jahrbuch during 1779.
- It [Messier 92] is about 26,700 light-years away from the Solar System.
- Characteristic of other globulars, it [Messier 92] has little of the elements other than hydrogen and helium; astronomers term this low metallicity.
- Its [Messier 92] coordinates indicate that the Earth’s North Celestial Pole periodically passes less than one degree of this cluster during the precession of Earth’s axis. Thus, M92 was a “Polarissima Borealis”, or “North Cluster”, about 12,000 years ago (10,000 BC), and it will again in about 14,000 years (16,000 AD).
- It [Messier 92] was inadvertently rediscovered by Charles Messier on March 18, 1781, and added as the 92nd entry in his catalogue.
