Astronomy Photo of the Day
Posted By admin On January 16, 2011 @ 6:37 pm In Photo Essays | Comments Disabled
[1]
Globular Star Cluster 47 Tuc
Image Credit & Copyright [2]: Dieter Willasch [3] (Astro-Cabinet [4])
Explanation: Globular star cluster 47 Tucanae is a jewel of the southern sky. Also known as NGC 104 [5], it roams the halo [6] of our Milky Way Galaxy along with some 200 other globular star clusters [7]. The second brightest globular cluster (after Omega Centauri [8]) as seen from planet Earth, it lies about 13,000 light-years away and can be spotted naked-eye near the Small Magellanic Cloud [9] in the constellation of the Toucan [10]. The dense cluster is made up of several million stars [11] in a volume [12] only about 120 light-years across. Red giant stars [13] on the outskirts of the cluster are easy to pick out as yellowish stars in this sharp telescopic portrait [14]. Globular cluster 47 Tuc is also home to exotic x-ray binary [15] star systems.
Article printed from Recorder Online: http://www.berthoudrecorder.com
URL to article: http://www.berthoudrecorder.com/2011/01/16/astronomy-photo-of-the-day-2/
URLs in this post:
[1] Image: http://www.berthoudrecorder.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/01/47Tuc_DW900.jpg
[2] Copyright: http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/lib/about_apod.html#srapply
[3] Dieter Willasch: http://astro-cabinet.com/about.php
[4] Astro-Cabinet: http://astro-cabinet.com/loggedon.php
[5] known as NGC 104: http://www.seds.org/messier/xtra/ngc/n0104.html
[6] the halo: http://csep10.phys.utk.edu/astr162/lect/milkyway/components.html
[7] globular star clusters: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Globular_cluster
[8] Omega Centauri: http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap100331.html
[9] Small Magellanic Cloud: http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap100903.html
[10] the Toucan: http://www.hawastsoc.org/deepsky/tuc/
[11] stars: http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap080906.html
[12] volume: http://www.astronomycafe.net/qadir/ask/a11508.html
[13] Red giant stars: http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap081218.html
[14] sharp telescopic portrait: http://astro-cabinet.com/showimage.php?image=NGC104_60m_LRGB.jpg&lang=english
[15] x-ray binary: http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap050721.html
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