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A globular cluster is a spherical collection of stars. Globular clusters are very tightly bound by gravity, with a high concentration of stars towards their centers. Their name is derived from Latin globulus—a small sphere. Globular clusters are occasionally known simply as globulars.
The Sagittarius Dwarf Spheroidal Galaxy (Sgr dSph), also known as the Sagittarius Dwarf Elliptical Galaxy, is an elliptical loop-shaped satellite galaxy of the Milky Way. It contains four globular clusters in its main body, with the brightest of them – NGC 6715 (M54) – being known well before the discovery of the galaxy itself in 1994. Sgr dSph is roughly 10,000 light-years in diameter, and is currently about 70,000 light-years from Earth, travelling in a polar orbit at a distance of about 50,000 light-years from the core of the Milky Way. In its looping, spiraling path, it has passed through the plane of the Milky Way several times in the past. In 2018 the Gaia project of the European Space Agency showed that Sgr dSph had caused perturbations in a set of stars near the Milky Way's core, causing unexpected rippling movements of the stars triggered when it moved past the Milky Way between 300 and 900 million years ago.
Messier 10 or M10 is a globular cluster of stars in the equatorial constellation of Ophiuchus. The object was discovered by the French astronomer Charles Messier on May 29, 1764, who cataloged it as number 10 in his catalogue and described it as a "nebula without stars". In 1774, German astronomer Johann Elert Bode likewise called it a "nebulous patch without stars; very pale". Using larger instrumentation, German-born astronomer William Herschel was able to resolve the cluster into its individual members. He described it as a "beautiful cluster of extremely compressed stars". William Parsons, 3rd Earl of Rosse thought he could distinguish a dark lane through part of the cluster. The first to estimate the distance to the cluster was Harlow Shapley, although his derivation of 33,000 light years was much further than the modern value.
Messier 19 or M19 is a globular cluster in the constellation Ophiuchus. It was discovered by Charles Messier on June 5, 1764 and added to his catalogue of comet-like objects that same year. It was resolved into individual stars by William Herschel in 1784. His son, John Herschel, described it as "a superb cluster resolvable into countless stars". The cluster is located 4.5° WSW of Theta Ophiuchi and is just visible as a fuzzy point of light using 50 mm (2.0 in) binoculars. Using a telescope with a 25.4 cm (10.0 in) aperture, the cluster shows an oval appearance with a 3′ × 4′ core and a 5′ × 7′ halo.
Messier 22 or M22, also known as NGC 6656, is an elliptical globular cluster of stars in the constellation Sagittarius, near the Galactic bulge region. It is one of the brightest globulars visible in the night sky. The brightest stars are 11th magnitude, with hundreds of stars bright enough to resolve with an 8" telescope. It is just south of the sun's position in mid-December, and northwest of Lambda Sagittarii, the northernmost star of the "Teapot" asterism.
Messier 62 or M62, also known as NGC 6266, is a globular cluster of stars in the south of the equatorial constellation of Ophiuchus. It was discovered in 1771 by Charles Messier, then added to his catalogue eight years later.
A dwarf galaxy is a small galaxy composed of about 1000 up to several billion stars, as compared to the Milky Way's 200–400 billion stars. The Large Magellanic Cloud, which closely orbits the Milky Way and contains over 30 billion stars, is sometimes classified as a dwarf galaxy; others consider it a full-fledged galaxy. Dwarf galaxies' formation and activity are thought to be heavily influenced by interactions with larger galaxies. Astronomers identify numerous types of dwarf galaxies, based on their shape and composition.
Messier 69 or M69, also known NGC 6637, is a globular cluster in the southern constellation of Sagittarius. It can be found 2.5° to the northeast of the star Epsilon Sagittarii and is dimly visible in 50 mm aperture binoculars. The cluster was discovered by Charles Messier on August 31, 1780, the same night he discovered M70. At the time, he was searching for an object described by Nicolas-Louis de Lacaille in 1751–2 and thought he had rediscovered it, but it is unclear if Lacaille actually described M69.
Messier 75 or M75, also known as NGC 6864, is a giant globular cluster of stars in the southern constellation Sagittarius. It was discovered by Pierre Méchain in 1780 and included in Charles Messier's catalog of comet-like objects that same year.
NGC 2419 is a globular cluster in the constellation Lynx. It was discovered by William Herschel on December 31, 1788. NGC 2419 is at a distance of about 300,000 light years from the Solar System and at the same distance from the galactic center.
Palomar 12 is a globular cluster in the constellation Capricornus, and is a member of the Palomar Globular Clusters group.
Palomar 5 is a globular cluster and a member of the Palomar Globular Clusters group. It was discovered by Walter Baade in 1950, and independently found again by Albert George Wilson in 1955. After the initial name of Serpens, it was subsequently catalogued as Palomar 5.
Palomar 1 is a globular cluster part of the Palomar group in the constellation Cepheus in the halo possibly in the Outer Arm of the Milky Way galaxy. First discovered by George O. Abell in 1954 on the Palomar Survey Sky plates, it was catalogued as a globular cluster. At 6.3 to 8 Gyr, it is a very young cluster when compared to the other globular clusters in the Milky Way. It is a relatively metal-rich globular with [Fe/H] = -0.60. It is likely that Palomar 1 has a similar evolutionary history to the Sagittarius dwarf companion globular Terzan 7, that is, it may have once been associated with a dwarf spheroidal galaxy that was later destroyed by tidal forces.
Terzan 7 is a sparse and young globular cluster that is believed to have originated in the Sagittarius Dwarf Spheroidal Galaxy and is physically associated with it. It is relatively metal rich with [Fe/H] = -0.6 and an estimated age of 7.5 Gyr. Terzan 7 has low levels of nickel which supports its membership in the Sag DEG system since it has a similar chemical signature. It has a rich population of blue stragglers that are strongly concentrated toward the center of Terzan 7. It has an average luminosity distribution of Mv = -5.05. It has a half-light radius (Rh) of 6.5pc.
Mercer 3, also known as GLIMPSE-C02, is a heavily obscured globular cluster embedded in the disk of the Milky Way galaxy. It was discovered in 2008 in the data obtained by 2MASS and GLIMPSE infrared surveys, and independently characterized by two groups. The cluster is located in the Scutum constellation. It had avoided detection for such a long time due to the extremely strong foreground extinction in its direction reaching 24 magnitudes in the visible light. Mercer 3 is probably situated at the distance from 4 to 8 kpc from the Sun and has a half-light radius of 0.7–1.5 pc.
Arp-Madore 1 is a globular cluster visible in the constellation Horologium, located 123.3 kiloparsecs away from Earth. It is one of the most distant known globular clusters of the Milky Way galaxy's halo; its distance gives it interest as a test case for gravitational theories. It is named after Halton Arp and Barry F. Madore, who identified it as a distant globular cluster in 1979, using the UK Schmidt Telescope, after previous researchers at the European Southern Observatory had observed its existence but not its classification.
Bahcall–Wolf cusp refers to a particular distribution of stars around a massive black hole at the center of a galaxy or globular cluster. If the nucleus containing the black hole is sufficiently old, exchange of orbital energy between stars drives their distribution toward a characteristic form, such that the density of stars, ρ, varies with distance from the black hole, r, as
NGC 7727 is a peculiar galaxy in the constellation Aquarius. It harbors two galactic nuclei, each containing a supermassive black hole, separated 1,600 light years apart.
NGC 6441 is a globular cluster in the southern constellation of Scorpius. It was discovered by the Scottish astronomer James Dunlop on May 13, 1826, who described it as "a small, well-defined rather bright nebula, about 20″ in diameter". The cluster is located 5 arc minutes east-northeast of the star G Scorpii, and is some 43,000 light-years from the Sun.
The Palomar globular clusters are some of the faintest of all globular clusters in the Milky Way galaxy, and been discovered in the 1950s on the survey plates of the first Palomar Observatory Sky Survey (POSS). In total there are 15 Palomar globular clusters, which include Palomar 1, Palomar 2, Palomar 3, Palomar 4, Palomar 5, Palomar 6, Palomar 7,, Palomar 8 Palomar 9, Palomar 10, Palomar 11, Palomar 12, Palomar 13, Palomar 14, and Palomar 15. Some Palomar Globulars, like Palomar 6, Palomar 7, Palomar 9, Palomar 10 and Palomar 11 are clusters of average size located nearby, yet obscured in our line of sight by dust. Other Palomar globulars, like Palomar 3, Palomar 4 and Palomar 14 are giants located in the far outer halo of the Milky Way. Observation of different Palomar globulars greatly varies in the degree of difficulty depending on the cluster.
References
- 1 2 3 "GCl 38". SIMBAD . Centre de données astronomiques de Strasbourg . Retrieved 2009-07-08.
- 1 2 3 4 5 Hilker, Michael (March 11, 2006). "Probable Member Stars of the Gravitational Theory-Testing Globular Clusters AM 1, Pal 3 and Pal 14". Astronomy and Astrophysics. 448 (1): 171–180. arXiv: astro-ph/0510679 . Bibcode:2006A&A...448..171H. doi:10.1051/0004-6361:20054327.
- ↑ Arp, Halton; van den Bergh, Sidney (1960). "A New Faint Globular Cluster". Publications of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific. 72 (48): 48. Bibcode:1960PASP...72...48A. doi: 10.1086/127473 .
- 1 2 Jordi, K.; Grebel, E. K.; Hilker, M.; Baumgardt, H.; Frank, M.; Kroupa, P.; Haghi, H.; CBtE, P.; Djorgovski, S. G. (2009). "Testing Fundamental Physics with Distant Star Clusters: Analysis of Observational Data on Palomar 14". The Astronomical Journal. 137 (6): 4586–4596. arXiv: 0903.4448 . Bibcode:2009AJ....137.4586J. doi:10.1088/0004-6256/137/6/4586.
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