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APOD
Astronomy Picture of the Day
Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation written by a professional astronomer.
Globular Star Cluster 47 Tuc
Explanation: Globular star cluster 47 Tucanae is a jewel of the southern sky. Also known as NGC 104 , it roams the halo of our Milky Way Galaxy along with some 200 other globular star clusters . The second brightest globular cluster (after Omega Centauri ) as seen from planet Earth, it lies about 13,000 light-years away and can be spotted naked-eye near the Small Magellanic Cloud in the constellation of the Toucan . The dense cluster is made up of several million stars in a volume only about 120 light-years across. Red giant stars on the outskirts of the cluster are easy to pick out as yellowish stars in this sharp telescopic portrait . Globular cluster 47 Tuc is also home to exotic x-ray binary star systems.
| Date | January 16, 2011 |
|---|---|
| Credit | Image Credit & Copyright: Dieter Willasch ( Astro-Cabinet ) |
| Authors & editors: | Robert Nemiroff (MTU) & Jerry Bonnell (UMCP) |
| A service of: |
ASD at NASA / GSFC, NASA Science Activation & Michigan Tech. U. |