Messier 12 or M 12 (also designated NGC 6218) is a
globular cluster in the
constellation of
Ophiuchus. It was discovered by the French astronomer
Charles Messier on May 30, 1764, who described it as a "nebula without stars".[8] In dark conditions this cluster can be faintly seen with a pair of binoculars. Resolving the stellar components requires a telescope with an
aperture of 8 in (20 cm) or greater.[9] In a 10 in (25 cm) scope, the granular core shows a diameter of 3′ (
arcminutes) surrounded by a 10′ halo of stars.[8]
M12 is roughly 3°[9] northwest from the cluster
M10 and 5.6°
east southeast from star
Lambda Ophiuchi. It is also located near the 6th magnitude
12 Ophiuchi.[10] The cluster is about 16,400 light-years (5,000 parsecs)[3] from
Earth and has a spatial diameter of about 75 light-years. The brightest stars of M12 are of 12th
magnitude. M10 and M12 are only a few thousand light-years away from each other and each cluster would appear at about magnitude 4.5 from the other.[10] With a Shapley-Sawyer rating of IX,[1] it is rather loosely packed for a globular and was once thought to be a tightly concentrated
open cluster. Thirteen
variable stars have been recorded in this cluster. M12 is approaching us at a velocity of 16 km/s.[11]
A study published in 2006 concluded that this cluster has an unusually low number of low-mass stars. The authors surmise that they were stripped from the cluster by passage through the relatively matter-rich plane of the
Milky Way.[12]
^
abShapley, Harlow; Sawyer, Helen B. (August 1927), "A Classification of Globular Clusters", Harvard College Observatory Bulletin, 849 (849): 11–14,
Bibcode:
1927BHarO.849...11S.
^
abcGontcharov, George A.; Khovritchev, Maxim Yu; Mosenkov, Aleksandr V.; Il'In, Vladimir B.; Marchuk, Alexander A.; Savchenko, Sergey S.; Smirnov, Anton A.; Usachev, Pavel A.; Poliakov, Denis M. (2021). "Isochrone fitting of Galactic globular clusters – III. NGC 288, NGC 362, and NGC 6218 (M12)". Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society. 508 (2): 2688–2705.
arXiv:2109.13115.
doi:
10.1093/mnras/stab2756.
^"Messier 12". SEDS Messier Catalog. Archived from
the original on 1 July 2022. Retrieved 27 April 2022.
^Marks, Michael; Kroupa, Pavel (August 2010), "Initial conditions for globular clusters and assembly of the old globular cluster population of the Milky Way", Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, 406 (3): 2000–2012,
arXiv:1004.2255,
Bibcode:
2010MNRAS.406.2000M,
doi:
10.1111/j.1365-2966.2010.16813.x,
S2CID118652005. Mass is from MPD on Table 1.