It was discovered by Philippe Loys de Chéseaux in 1745 and included by Charles Messier in his catalog of non-comet-like objects in 1780.

[9] This star cluster is about 13,000 light years away from Earth and spans 27 light-years (8 pc).

However, modern photometric photometry has detected a short "horizontal branch" in the H-R diagram (chart of temperature versus luminosity) which is characteristic of a globular cluster.

The shortness of the branch explains the lack of RR Lyrae variables and is due to the globular's relatively young age of 9–10 billion years.

Hence today M71 is designated as a very loosely concentrated globular cluster, much like M68 in Hydra.