M 14 is a globular cluster located 30,000 light years away in the constellation of Ophiuchus. The cluster contains over 150,000 stars and spans 100 light years.
Within the cluster there are at least 70 variable stars.
Although M 14 is one of the most massive globular clusters it has not been fully studied due to its location near the galactic plane.
A recent study found that M14 has a huge gap in the distribution of some light elements like oxygen or magnesium.
The study also found that M14 does not host stellar populations with an extreme helium content and it is thought that the cluster has undergone two stages of 2G star formation.
The researchers concluded that “the first one from matter strongly contaminated with p-processed elements and significantly rich in helium, the second one from matter—not necessarily sharing the same heavy p-processing of the first event—heavily diluted with pristine gas, so that both the helium content and the abundances of light elements remain either standard or close to standard”
Imaged in LRGB on my Planewave CDK 700 at Observatorio El Sauce, Chile.
Image acquisition and processing: Mike Selby