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M72 was discovered by astronomer Pierre Méchain in 1780. His countryman Charles Messier looked for it 36 days later, and included it in his catalog. Both opted for the then-dominant of the competing terms for such objects, considering it a faint nebula rather than a cluster. With a larger instrument, astronomer John Herschel (died 1871) called it a bright "cluster of stars of a round figure". Astronomer Harlow Shapley (died 1972) noted a similarity to Messier 4 and 12.