Messier 69 is a ball of stars (globular cluster) located about 29,700 light years away from the Earth in the southern constellation of Sagittarius (the Archer). Messier 69 is around 13 billion years old, containing about 125,00 stars. 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 picture was obtained with the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope and is a combination of exposures taken in visible and near-infrared light.