[a] It was discovered by Charles Messier in 1778 and then included in his catalog of comet-like objects.

In July 2009, a team of astronomers reported that they had found evidence of an intermediate-mass black hole in the core of M54.

[8] Previously thought to belong to the Milky Way at a distance from Earth of about 50,000 light-years, it was discovered in 1994 that M54 most likely belongs to the Sagittarius Dwarf Elliptical Galaxy (SagDEG),[9] making it the first globular cluster formerly thought to be part of our galaxy reassigned to extragalactic status, even if not recognized as such for more than two centuries.

As it is located in SagDEG's center, some authors think it actually may be its core;[10] however others have proposed that it is a real globular cluster that fell to the center of this galaxy due to decay of its orbit caused by dynamical friction.

[5] It is one of the denser of the globulars, being of class III[1] (I being densest and XII being the least dense).