New Look at an Ancient Swarm of Stars

By Nancy Atkinson - December 8, 2010 at 7:17 AM UTC | Stars
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Globular clusters form during the earliest stages in a galaxy's development, so clusters like this one, M 107, or NGC 6171 are some of the oldest objects in the Universe. Typically, globular clusters formed about 10 billion years ago, and astronomers say that studying these objects can provide significant insights into how galaxies, and their component stars evolve. While M 107 has been observed many times, this new look from ESO shows a stunning view of this swarm of stars.

Located about 21,000 light years away, M107 is not visible to the naked eye. But, with an apparent magnitude of about eight, it can easily be observed from a dark site with binoculars or a small telescope.

The globular cluster is about 13 arcminutes across and is found in the constellation of Ophiuchus, north of the pincers of Scorpius. Roughly half of the Milky Way's known globular clusters are actually found in the constellations of Sagittarius, Scorpius and Ophiuchus, in the general direction of the centre of the Milky Way. This is because they are all in elongated orbits around the central region and are on average most likely to be seen in this direction.

This image is composed from exposures taken through the blue, green and near-infrared filters by the Wide Field Camera (WFI) on the MPG/ESO 2.2-metre telescope at the La Silla Observatory in Chile.

Source:

ESO

Nancy Atkinson

Nancy Atkinson

Nancy Atkinson is a space journalist and author with a passion for telling the stories of people involved in space exploration and astronomy. She is currently retired from daily writing, but worked at Universe Today for 20 years as a writer and editor. She also contributed articles to The Planetary Society, Ad Astra (National Space Society), New Scientist and many other online outlets.

Her 2019 book, "Eight Years to the Moon: The History of the Apollo Missions,” shares the untold stories of engineers and scientists who worked behind the scenes to make the Apollo program so successful, despite the daunting odds against it. Her first book “Incredible Stories From Space: A Behind-the-Scenes Look at the Missions Changing Our View of the Cosmos” (2016) tells the stories of 37 scientists and engineers that work on several current NASA robotic missions to explore the solar system and beyond.

Nancy is also a NASA/JPL Solar System Ambassador, and through this program, she has the opportunity to share her passion of space and astronomy with children and adults through presentations and programs. Nancy's personal website is nancyatkinson.com