Palomar 6

Palomar 6 is a loose globular cluster in the constellation Ophiuchus that belongs to the Milky Way galaxy. It is a member of the Palomar Globular Clusters group and is located about 25,000 light-years (7,700 parsecs) away from the Sun.^[2] It formed in what would become the bulge of the Milky Way and is similar to other old-bulge globular clusters such as Messier 62, NGC 6522, NGC 6558, and Haute-Provence 1.^[2]

Palomar 6
Observation data (J2000 epoch)
Class	XI
Constellation	Ophiuchus
Right ascension	17h 43m 42.20s[1]
Declination	−26° 13′ 21.0″[1]
Distance	25.02 ± 0.62 kly (7.67 ± 0.19 kpc)[2]
Physical characteristics
Mass	2.28×105[3] M☉
Metallicity	${\displaystyle {\begin{smallmatrix}\left[{\ce {Fe}}/{\ce {H}}\right]\end{smallmatrix}}}$ = –0.91[3] dex
Estimated age	12.4 ± 0.9 Gyr[2]
Other designations	ESO 520-21, GCl 75, 1740-262[1]
See also: Globular cluster, List of globular clusters

First discovered on the National Geographic Society – Palomar Observatory Sky Survey plates by Robert G. Harrington and Fritz Zwicky,^[4] it was catalogued as a globular cluster, and was thought to be one of four globulars known to contain a planetary nebula. A paper published in 2024, however, showed that the proper motion of the central star of the nebula JaFu 1 differs from that of the cluster with high statistical significance, thus confirming that the nebula is not located within the cluster.^[5]