Sunny Priyan
This stunning Hubble image captures the globular cluster NGC 6380, located 35,000 light-years away in the constellation Scorpio.
The bright star at the top, HD 159073, is a much closer neighbor, located just 4,000 light-years from Earth.
NGC 6380, part of the New General Catalogue from 1888, has been known by many other names despite its unremarkable designation.
Discovered by James Dunlop in 1826 as Dun 538, the cluster was later rediscovered by John Herschel in 1834 as H 3688, and cataloged by Paris Pişmiş as Tonantzintla 1.
Until the 1950s, NGC 6380 was mistaken for an open cluster until A. D. Thackeray identified it as a globular cluster.
This cluster is reliably recognized in widely available catalogues as a globular cluster, and referred to simply as NGC 6380.