Messier 56 is a ball of stars (globular cluster) located about 33 000 light years away from the Earth in the constellation of Lyra (The Lyre) lying close to the Milky Way's galactic plane. The properties of Messier 56 indicate that the cluster may have become part of the Milky Way Galaxy when it merged with a dwarf galaxy. Studies indicate that Messier 56 is over 13 billion years old. Charles Messier, the 18th century French astronomer, catalogued over 100 galaxies and clusters. Through the telescopes available at the time, comets, nebulae, globular clusters and galaxies appeared just as faint, diffuse blobs. This picture was obtained with the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope.