Located within a degree of the more famous
globular M53, it can be interesting to compare and contrast the
two. Oddly, the smaller and fainter NGC 5053 is actually the
closer of the two (although not by much). In fact, it is one of
the intrinsically faintest of the known globular clusters,
shining perhaps with the light of a mere 16,000 suns. It is also
one of the most metal-poor known, indicating that it formed from
interstellar gas that had not been significantly enhanced with
the byproducts of many generations of stars. Like all Milky Way
globular clusters this group of stars formed together long ago
(about 13 Billion years).
