Astronomy Picture of the Day
Posted By admin On May 10, 2011 @ 6:54 am In Photo Essays | Comments Disabled
Stars, like bees, swarm around the center of bright globular cluster M15. This ball of over 100,000 stars is a relic from the early years of our Galaxy, and continues to orbit the Milky Way’s center.
[1]
Globular Cluster M15 from Hubble
Credit: ESA [2], Hubble [3], NASA [4]
Explanation: Stars, like bees, swarm around the center of bright globular cluster M15. This ball of over 100,000 stars [5] is a relic from the early years [6] of our Galaxy [7], and continues to orbit the Milky Way’s center [8]. M15 [9], one of about 150globular clusters [10] remaining, is noted for being easily visible with only binoculars [11], having at its center one of the densest concentrations of stars [12] known, and containing a high abundance of variable stars [13] and pulsars [14]. This sharp image [15], taken by the Earth-orbiting Hubble Space Telescope [16], spans about 120 light years [17]. It shows the dramatic increase in density of stars toward the cluster’s center. M15 [18] lies about 35,000 light years [19] away toward the constellation [20] of the Winged Horse (Pegasus [21]). Recent evidence [22] indicates that a massive black hole [23] might reside as the center of M15 [24].
Visit the NASA/JPL website to view more Astronomy Pictures of the Day [25]
Article printed from Recorder Online: http://www.berthoudrecorder.com
URL to article: http://www.berthoudrecorder.com/2011/05/10/astronomy-picture-of-the-day-68/
URLs in this post:
[1] Image: http://www.berthoudrecorder.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/m15_hst_4089.jpg
[2] ESA: http://www.esa.int/
[3] Hubble: http://www.spacetelescope.org/
[4] NASA: http://www.nasa.gov/
[5] stars: http://starchild.gsfc.nasa.gov/docs/StarChild/universe_level2/stars.html
[6] early years: http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap980719.html
[7] our Galaxy: http://www.seds.org/messier/more/mw.html
[8] Milky Way’s center: http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap060716.html
[9] M15: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=un5xLqe_4WY
[10] globular clusters: http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/globular_clusters.html
[11] binoculars: http://www.birdwatching.com/optics/binoculars1.html
[12] densest concentrations of stars: http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap000804.html
[13] variable stars: http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap070415.html
[14] pulsars: http://imagine.gsfc.nasa.gov/docs/science/know_l1/pulsars.html
[15] This sharp image: http://www.spacetelescope.org/images/potw1107a/
[16] Hubble Space Telescope: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hubble_Space_Telescope
[17] light years: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Light_year
[18] M15: http://www.astr.ua.edu/gifimages/m15r.html
[19] light years: http://chandra.harvard.edu/photo/cosmic_distance.html
[20] constellation: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Constellation#History
[21] Pegasus: http://www.astro.wisc.edu/~dolan/constellations/constellations/Pegasus.html
[22] Recent evidence: http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/1998AJ....115..708D
[23] black hole: http://archive.ncsa.uiuc.edu/Cyberia/NumRel/BlackHoles.html
[24] center of M15: http://asterisk.apod.com/viewtopic.php?f=24&t=18009
[25] Astronomy Pictures of the Day: http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/
Click here to print.