1. esiegel
  2. Fossilized relic discovered by Hubble is a bridge to the Milky Way's past (Synopsis)

Fossilized relic discovered by Hubble is a bridge to the Milky Way's past (Synopsis)

By esiegel on September 12, 2016.

“It matters not what someone is born, but what they grow to be.” -J.K. Rowling

From 19,000 light years away, Terzan 5 looks a lot like pretty much any globular cluster you'd expect to find: it's massive, concentrated, with a huge number of stars at right around 12 billion years of age. But mixed in there is a second population of stars just 4.5 billion years old, and tremendously represented in number as well.

This wide-field image, based on data from Digitized Sky Survey 2, shows the whole region around the stellar grouping Terzan 5. Image credit: ESO/Digitized Sky Survey 2. This wide-field image, based on data from Digitized Sky Survey 2, shows the whole region around the stellar grouping Terzan 5. Image credit: ESO/Digitized Sky Survey 2.

We've never seen a globular like this before, which would have required about 100 million solar masses in gas to remain after the initial burst of formation. But Terzan 5 is an amazing find for containing stars similar to the ones found in the galactic bulge. Is it possible or even probable that this fossilized relic is a survivor of the starbursts that formed the stars in the galactic center, and that it survived them twice?

The globular cluster Terzan 5 as seen by the ESO’s Very Large Telescope, with other data as well. Image credit: ESO-VLT, F.R. Ferraro et al., HST-NICMOS, ESA/Hubble & NASA. The globular cluster Terzan 5 as seen by the ESO’s Very Large Telescope, with other data as well. Image credit: ESO-VLT, F.R. Ferraro et al., HST-NICMOS, ESA/Hubble & NASA.

Come learn more on today's Mostly Mute Monday!

Tags
Astronomy
Stars

More like this

Messier Monday: A Diffuse, Distant Globular at the End-of-the-Marathon, M72
"Every star may be a sun to someone." -Carl Sagan Welcome back to yet another Messier Monday! Each week, we highlight one of the 110 deep-sky objects that make up the Messier catalogue: Charles Messier's legacy to comet-hunters and amateur astronomers, pointing out some of the most easily visible…
Messier Monday: The Great Pinwheel of Virgo, M99
"Pinwheel, pinwheel spinning around. Look at my Pinwheel and see what I found. Pinwheel, pinwheel, breezy and bright. Spin me good morning, spin me good night." -Janet Gardner It's time for another Messier Monday, where each week, one of the 110 deep-sky objects that make up the famed Messier…
Messier Monday: The Top-Heavy Gumball Globular, M12
"A little knowledge that acts is worth infinitely more than much knowledge that is idle." -Khalil Gibran It’s time again for another Messier Monday! The Messier Catalogue was the original comprehensive and accurate catalogue of fixed, deep-sky objects visible to any dedicated (northern hemisphere)…
Three Spectacular Nebulae Caught Together, Revealing Stunning Details About Star Birth (Synopsis)
"It shows you exactly how a star is formed; nothing else can be so pretty! A cluster of vapor, the cream of the milky way, a sort of celestial cheese, churned into light." -Benjamin Disraeli From here on Earth, most of the stars we see in the night sky are ancient, having departed from the star-…