Astronomy Picture of the Day

Globular Cluster M22 from CFHT


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#76361 by @ 28.06.2005 00:00 - nach oben -
Globular Cluster M22 from CFHT


Explanation:
The globular cluster
M22,
pictured above, contains over 100,000 stars.

These stars formed together and are gravitationally bound.

Stars orbit the center
of the cluster, and the cluster orbits the
center of our Galaxy.

So far, about
140 globular clusters are known to exist in a roughly
spherical halo around the
Galactic center.

Globular clusters
do not appear spherically distributed as viewed from the Earth,
and this fact was a key point in the
determination that our Sun
is not at the center of
our Galaxy.

Globular clusters are very old.

There is a straightforward method of
determining their age, and this nearly matches the
13.7 billion-year age of our
entire universe.





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