Messier 12 is a ball of stars (globular cluster) located in the constellation Ophiuchus. Messier 12 is also known as the Gumball Globular and lies at a distance of 15,700 light-years from Earth, contains around 200,000 stars and is thought to be 12.67 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, blue, red and near-infrared filters.