M56

Messier 56 (M56) is a globular cluster in the Milky Way galaxy, located in the northern constellation Lyra. It was discovered by Charles Messier in 1779 and is cataloged as the 56th object in his Messier list.

Observationally, M56 is relatively faint for a globular cluster, with an integrated magnitude around 8.3 to 8.6. From dark skies it appears as a small, rounded hazy patch through modest amateur telescopes. Larger instruments and good seeing can reveal a few resolved stars toward the cluster’s outskirts, though the core remains largely unresolved for most observers.

Distance and location estimates place M56 at tens of thousands of light-years from the Sun, commonly around 10 kiloparsecs (roughly 30,000 to 35,000 light-years). This places the cluster in the Milky Way’s halo, well above the galactic plane, and it is part of the population of old globular clusters that orbit the Galaxy.

Stellar population and age are characteristic of globular clusters: M56 is old, with an estimated age of about 12 to 13 billion years. Its stars are metal-poor, reflecting chemical enrichment processes from the early history of the Milky Way.

As one of Messier’s objects, M56 is of interest in studies of the structure and evolution of the Milky Way’s globular cluster system.