Universe Today
Description:
"For a long time astronomers have speculated about what processes control the sizes of stars - about why stars are the sizes that they are. Now in M16 we seem to be watching at least one such process at work right in front of our eyes."
History of Observation:
"In the same night of June 3 to 4, 1764, I have discovered a cluster of small stars, mixed with a faint light, near the tail of Serpens, at little distance from the parallel of the star Zeta of that constellation: this cluster may have 8 minutes of arc in extension: with a weak refractor, these stars appear in the form of a nebula; but when employing a good instrument one distinguishes these stars, and one remarks in addition a nebulosity which contains three of these stars. I have determined the position of the middle of this cluster; its right ascension was 271d 15' 3", and its declination 13d 51' 44" south."
"A scattered but fine large stellar cluster, on the nombril of Sobieski's shield, in the Galaxy, discovered by Messier in 1764, and registered as a mass of small stars in the midst of a faint light. As the stars are disposed in numerous pairs among the evanescent points of more minute components, it forms a very pretty object in a telescope of tolerable capacity."