The cluster is easily detectable with the naked eye, close to the "stinger" of Scorpius.

In 1764, French astronomer Charles Messier catalogued the cluster as the seventh member in his list of comet-like objects.

In terms of composition, the cluster contains a similar abundance of elements other than hydrogen and helium as the Sun.

Most such objects are open clusters of large angular diameter that would require thousands of photos due to Hubble's small field of view.

(For comparison, Hubble's well known panoramic photo of the Andromeda Galaxy, covering less than half of our galactic neighbor, required approximately 400 individual movements and 7400 exposures.