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Peering into the Core of a Globular Cluster

Peering into the Core of a Globular Cluster


Depicts: NGC 5139, Omega Centauri
Copyright: NASA and The Hubble Heritage Team (STScI/AURA)

Astronomers have used NASA's Hubble Space Telescope to peer into the center of a dense swarm of stars called Omega Centauri. Located some 17,000 light-years from Earth, Omega Centauri is a massive globular star cluster, containing several million stars swirling in locked orbits around a common center of gravity. The stars are packed so densely in the cluster's core that it is difficult for ground-based telescopes to make out individual stars. Hubble's high resolution is able to pick up where ground-based telescopes leave off, capturing distinct points of light from stars at the very center of the cluster.
Last Update: 1 September 2019
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26-Dec-2024 10:30 UT

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https://sci.esa.int/s/wRmRnXA

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