Omega Centauri is located in the constellation Centaurus, and best viewed in the Southern Hemisphere. Located just above the plane of the Milky Way, it is the largest and most massive globular cluster in the Milky Way. it is so bright that it is one of the few globular clusters visible to the naked eye. It appears almost as large as the full Moon. 

The cluster contains approximately 10 million stars and has a total mass roughly 10 times that of other large globular clusters. It spans about 150 light-years in diameter and is located about 17,000 light-years from Earth.

Unlike most globular clusters, which contain stars of a similar age and composition, Omega Centauri has different populations of stars with a variety of ages and chemical compositions.

Due to its immense size and varied stellar populations, astronomers believe Omega Centauri is the remnant core of a dwarf galaxy that was absorbed by the Milky Way billions of years ago. Further, there is evidence that suggests that an intermediate-mass black hole with a mass of up to 40,000 solar masses lies at its core. This indicates that Omega Centauri is not a typical globular cluster.