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Sagittarius Star Cloud
The Sagittarius Star Cloud, which is also known as Messier 24, Delle Caustiche or IC 4715, is found within the Milky Way star cloud in the Sagittarius Constellation. In 1764, it was discovered by Charles Messier who described it as large nebulosity carrying different stars with different magnitudes. The distance between the Earth and the star cloud is approximately 10,000 light years, with a magnitude of 4.6. With Messier 24 being 600 light years wide, it occupies the space in the Sagittarius Arm of our galaxy, which is the next spiral arm that is inward from ours. The various kinds of stars, clusters, and objects give the cloud a great sense of profoundness, with a distance between 10,000 to 16,000 light years from Earth. These stars would be from Scutum-Centarurus Arm, which is the major spiral arm that divides the galactic center and us.

There are two different types of Sagittarius star clouds located within the constellation of Sagittarius, the Small Sagittarius Star Cloud and the Large Sagittarius Star Cloud, with is farther down towards the South and contains stars located in galactic bulge. The star cloud can be seen visible when the Milky Way itself is visible as well. Without the dust and gas that conceals the Milky Way, M24 holds a collection of numerous kinds of stars that are placed along the Milky Way and through the galaxy's obscuring band of interstellar dust.

The location of the Sagittarius Star Cloud is near the Omega Nebula (also known as M17) and open cluster Messier 18, north of M24. Messier 24 also contains NGC 6603, an open cluster holding around 30 stars and placed in the brightest area of the star cloud.

HD 167356 is the brightest star that is located within the Sagittarius Star Cloud, a white supergiant with an apparent magnitude of 6.05. This star also goes under the category as an Alpha-2 Canum Venaticorum variable. With a visual magnitude of 6.5 and 7.0, there are three more other stars located in M24.

The star cloud incorporates two prominent dark nebulae that is caused by the dense obscuring dust. This dust inhibits any light to pass through from the distant stars that are located behind them. Lying on the northwestern side is Barnard 92, which is the darkest out of the two. Inside the field filled with stars, the nebula appears as an immense round hole that is devoid of any stars. American astronomer Edward Emerson Barnard discovered this dark nebula in 1913. Another dark nebula within the star cloud is Barnard 93, slightly varying from Barnard 92.

Along the northeast side contains Barnard 93, which is less obvious and large as the other dark nebula. There are also other dark nebulae within M24, including Barnard 304 and Barnard 307. Both Barnard 92 and 93 have the most significant features shown in M24 due to them both blocking out several stars and being the most visually prominent.

The Sagittarius Star Cloud also holds two planetary nebulae, M 1-43 and NGC 6567. Located within the spiral arm of the Andromeda Galaxy, Messier 24 holds some similarities with NGC 206, a bright, large star cloud.