Key facts
- Class
- XII
- Constellation
- Boötes
- Right ascension
- 14 05 27.29
- Declination
- +28 ° 32 ′ 04.0 ″
- Distance
- 52.2 ± 1.3 kly (16.0 ± 0.4 kpc )
- Apparent dimensions v
- 9.0′
- Absolute magnitude
- −6.98
- Mass
- 1.79 × 10 M ☉
- Tidal radius
- 238.0 ly (72.98 pc)
- Metallicity
- [ Fe/H ] = –1.95 ± 0.02 dex
- Estimated age
- 12.15 ± 0.11 Gyr
- Notable features
- Tidal stream
- Other designations
- NGC 5466, C 1403+287, GCl 27, GC 3776, h 1746, H 6
via Wikipedia infobox
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Encyclopedic overview
NGC 5466 is a globular cluster of stars in the constellation Boötes. It was discovered by German-British astronomer William Herschel on May 17, 1784, and catalogued as H VI.9. This large, dim cluster has an apparent visual magnitude of 9.2 and spans an angular size of 9.0′. It is relatively distant from the Sun, about 52 thousand light-years (16.0 kpc) away, and 53 thousand light-years (16.3 kpc) from the Galactic Center.
Observations
Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “Q1120021” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.