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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 Cluster M2
Explanation: Beneath the south pole of our Milky Way Galaxy lies a ball of over 100,000 stars. M2, the second object on Charles Messier 's eighteenth century list of bright diffuse sky objects , is known as a globular cluster , and orbits the center of our Galaxy like nearly 200 other globular clusters left over from the early days of our universe. M2 , pictured above , spans over 150 light-years, lies about 50,000 light-years away, and can be seen with binoculars towards the constellation of Aquarius . Determining the distances and ages to globular clusters like M2 constrains the scale and age of our entire universe.
| Date | June 11, 2001 |
|---|---|
| Credit | Credit & Copyright: D. Williams, N. A. Sharp , AURA , NOAO , NSF |
| Authors & editors: | Robert Nemiroff (MTU) & Jerry Bonnell (UMCP) |
| A service of: |
ASD at NASA / GSFC, NASA Science Activation & Michigan Tech. U. |