Messier Monday: A perfect ten on the celestial equator, M10 (Synopsis)

“It’s not what you have on the outside that glitters in light, it’s what you have on the inside that shines in the dark.” -Anthony Liccione

You might look out at a picture of a star cluster, globular cluster, or galaxy in space and think of this as mundane by this point in time. After all, how many of these have you seen by this point in your life, and so what's one more?

Image credit: © 1998-2004 David Haworth, via http://www.stargazing.net/david/messierD70/m10.html.

But you have to remember that for all of human history, we not only couldn't see these things at all, but when we enhanced our vision to the point where we could, we still had no idea what they were. And so when we look at even a nearby globular cluster like today's Messier object -- M10 -- you have to recognize that it's barely been 200 years since we realized what this object was, and that it's full of stars.

Image credit: N.A. Sharp, Vanessa Harvey / REU program / NOAO / AURA / NSF.

Come see what we know now, and learn all about this brilliant wonder of the night on today's Messier Monday!