Messier 71 is a ball of stars (globular cluster) located in the northern constellation Sagitta (the Arrow) and lies at a distance of 13,000 light-years from Earth. The cluster contains around 20,000 stars, one of the smallest globular clusters known, and is thought to be 9 to 10 billion years old. Charles Messier, the 18th century French astronomer, catalogued over 100 galaxies and clusters. Through the telescopes available at the time, comets, nebulae, globular clusters and galaxies appeared just as faint, diffuse blobs. This image was taken by the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope's Wide Field Camera for Surveys combining exposures taken with yellow and near-infrared filters.