Science | April 05, 2011 | 7 comments

A Globular Cluster 'Cosmopolis' Found Orbiting the Milky Way

source: http://www.dailygalaxy.com/my_weblog/2011/04/a-globular-cluster-cosmopolis-found-orbiting-th...

Image
GoldenHeart
This stunning new image of Messier 107 -- one of 150 globular clusters that orbit the Milky Way --was captured by the Wide Field Imager on the 2.2-metre telescope at ESO’s La Silla Observatory in Chile. Messier 107, also known as NGC 6171, a compact and ancient family of stars that lies about 21 000 light-years away, is a bustling metropolis: thousands of stars in globular clusters like this one are concentrated into a space that is only about twenty times the distance between our Sun and its nearest stellar neighbour, Alpha Centauri. A significant number of these stars have already evolved into red giants, one of the last stages of a star’s life, and have a yellowish colour in the image.
LINK : http://www.dailygalaxy.com/my_weblog/2011/04/a-globular-cluster-cosmopolis-found...
  1. groups:
    Science,   Space,   Learn,   BIGGER is better,   1 more
  2. tags:
    Space,  Milky Way,  Cosmopolis
  3. recommended by:
    Vierotchka
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