47 Tucanae is the second brightest globular cluster after Omega Centauri, and telescopically reveals about ten thousand stars, many appearing within a small dense central core.

[11][12] The cluster was recorded in 1751-2 by Nicolas-Louis de Lacaille, who initially thought it was the nucleus of a bright comet.

The number "47" was assigned in Allgemeine Beschreibung und Nachweisung der Gestirne nebst Verzeichniss ("General description and verification of the stars and indexes"), compiled by Johann Elert Bode and published in Berlin in 1801.

[15] 47 Tucanae is the second brightest globular cluster in the sky (after Omega Centauri), and is noted for having a small very bright and dense core.

Though it appears adjacent to the Small Magellanic Cloud, the latter is some 60.6 ± 1.0 kpc (200,000 ± 3,300 ly) distant,[16] being over fifteen times farther than 47 Tuc.

[18] A later ground-based survey in the uncrowded outer regions of the cluster also failed to detect planets when several were expected.

[11] Despite this, a recent analysis of an updated and more extensive timing data set on these pulsars provides no solid evidence in favor of the existence of a black hole.

[12] In December 2008, Ragbir Bhathal of the University of Western Sydney claimed the detection of a strong laser-like signal from the direction of 47 Tucanae.