Hubble Telescope Views Young Globular Cluster NGC 1783

One of the largest globular clusters in the Large Magellanic Cloud

This new Hubble image of NGC 1783, taken with the Advanced Camera for Survey (ACS), shows the typical shape of young globular clusters viewed during the human journey to the beginning of space and time. Image credit NASA.

Space news (September 20, 2015) – 160,000 light-years from Earth toward the constellation Dorado –

Held in the grip of its own gravity, globular cluster NGC 1783 orbits the Milky Way as part of the Large Magellanic Cloud, a region of space filled with star-forming regions like the Tarantula Nebula and LHA 120-N 11.

Lying in the southern hemisphere constellation Dorado, the typical symmetrical form and dense collection of suns near the center of NGC 1783 was first recorded by John Herschel around 1835.

Astrophysicists studied the color and brightness of individual suns within globular cluster NGC 1783 to estimate its age and history of star formation. Measurements indicate that despite its typical distribution of stars and shape this larger star cluster is only about 1.5 billion years old and during its lifespan has undergone at least two-star forming periods separated by 50 to 100 million years. Typically globular clusters viewed are several billion years of age.

The highs and lows of star formation in a globular cluster gives astrophysicists an indication of the density of gas available for new stars to form during its life span. During periods when dense gas is available for star formation, the most massive stars explode as supernovae, blowing away the gas needed for new stars to form. The reservoir of gas for new star formation is then replenished by less massive stars which live longer and die less violently.  Once the reservoir of gas flows to denser, central regions of a star cluster, the second phase of star formation takes place, and a massive star with a short life spans once again blow off the gas. Astrophysicists think this cycle continues until the gas leftover can no longer sustain the formation of new stars.

Learn more about the formation of new stars here.

Discover NASA’s space mission here.

Journey to the beginning of space and time using the Hubble Space Telescope here.

Read more about galactic nurseries found during our journey.

Learn about New Horizons Visit to Pluto and its moon Charon.

Learn more about the star systems discovered during our trip through the cosmos.

Journey into the Heart of the Beehive

The bottom photo reminds many of bees moving around in a hive

 The Hubble Space Telescope takes the human “Journey to the Beginning of Space and Time” into the beehive

Astronomy News – We join the human “Journey to the Beginning of Space and Time” as it boards the Hubble Space Telescope to travel 15,800 light years (~ 4850 parsecs) into Centaurus the Centaur to globular cluster Omega Centauri to peer into the beehive and look at individual stars. The beehive as it’s called was first noted by early star-gazer Ptolemy 2,000 years ago, both the largest and brightest globular cluster orbiting the Milky Way, the beehive is about 12 billion years old. Ptolemy didn’t have the Hubble Space Telescope to view Omega Centauri, so in his writings, he refers to the beehive as a single star. In reality, the beehive, or Omega Centauri, is a tightly packed group of about 10 million stars held together by gravity and orbiting a central gravitation mass, of some kind. In fact, the stars in the beehive are on average only about 0.1 light years apart, so close together that astronomers had to use the powerful vision of the Hubble Space Telescope to resolve individual stars.

The view from the Hubble Space Telescope

Hubble gives us the best view of the universe we have ever had

The Hubble Space Telescope’s vision is sharp enough astronomers used the images they have collected over a four-year period of viewing globular cluster Omega Centauri to precisely measure the relative motions of over 100,000 individual stars in the beehive. In an effort to gain insight into the evolution and life cycle of tight groups of stars formed in the early universe, and try to determine if there’s, in fact, an intermediate mass black hole hidden in the beehive. This study was conducted over a four-year period by Jay Anderson and Roeland van der Marel of the Space Telescope Science Institute using Hubble’s Advanced Camera for Surveys and high-speed, sophisticated computer programs to measure the relative motions of individual stars in the beehive.

On a clear night in the southern equatorial region of the night sky, it’s even possible to view the 3.5 magnitude beehive with the naked eye. Globular cluster Omega Centauri will appear as a fuzzy star that early astronomers believed was a single star. Use astronomical binoculars as your time-machine-to-the-stars, or a telescope, and the view becomes a wonder to behold as wide across in your viewfinder as the Full Moon. Using an 8-inch time-machine-to-the-stars you’ll view about 1,000 stars, each a faint pinprick of light, and you should notice that the beehive isn’t completely circular. Globular cluster Omega Centauri, in fact, rotates at a pretty fast speed around its central gravitational mass and astronomers believe this is one reason it’s less than circular.

Check out my latest astronomy website at http://astronomytonight.yolasite.com/.

 

 

 

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