M15

M15 is one of the larger and brighter globular clusters, lying about 34,000 light-years from Earth and filling a volume of space 175 light-years across. This cluster has an extremely dense core, possibly the densest of all globulars in our Milky Way. Having suffered a contraction known as ‘core collapse’, the central 1 ½ light-years of this swarm contains a significant fraction of the total mass of the cluster. There is speculation that a black hole might lurk in the middle of that core. Certainly, while the total mass of M15 is thousands of times the mass of our sun, half of that mass is contained within 10 light-years of the center. At least 9 pulsars have been found in the cluster, the remnants of ancient supernovae. One of these is a pulsar binary.

Taken September 7, 2012, with the C-14 operating at F:7 and the ST-8 camera binned 2 X 2. Exposure is 300 seconds self-guided.