Space photo of the week: A cosmic ‘fossil’ holding some of the oldest stars in the universe

overview: Globular Cluster NGC 2005

Where: Located in the Large Magellanic Cloud, 162,000 light years away. milky wayvisible from the constellation Dorado

Shared on: July 7, 2024

Why it’s special: This new image is Hubble Space Telescope It shows a type of object of mysterious origin that is common in the Milky Way – a globular cluster made up of tens of thousands to millions of stars tightly packed together and bound by gravity. But NGC 2005 is actually located in the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC), a dwarf galaxy close to the Milky Way, and can be easily seen at night from the Southern Hemisphere.

Globular clusters are thought to have been formed billions of years ago. There are about 150 of them. milky wayThey orbit the center in the opposite direction to most other objects in the Galaxy, providing evidence that they were captured when the Milky Way merged with another galaxy. National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA)Astronomers believe this is how galaxies evolve and grow. Another clue is that globular clusters Some of the oldest stars in the universe.

NGC 2005 is a perfect test case because it is outside the Milky Way, yet close enough to be studied carefully. It is about 750 light-years away from the center of the LMC, the largest of about 40 dwarf galaxies in the Milky Way’s neighborhood. Many of these dwarf galaxies are thought to orbit the Milky Way, but recent studies have shown that it is closer to the Milky Way than the LMC. Data from the Gaia spacecraft It suggests that many of them may just be passing through.

Full-size image of NGC 2005. (Image credit: ESA/Hubble & NASA, F. Niederhofer, L. Girardi)

If galaxies evolve by merging with other galaxies, then every galaxy should contain ancient stars whose chemical makeup differs from that of its surroundings, and this is certainly the case with NGC 2005. The galaxy appears to be the remains, perhaps the nucleus, of a dwarf galaxy that disappeared long ago.

The LMC can be easily seen on almost any clear night in the Southern Hemisphere. Good small telescope Or a pair Stargazing BinocularsThe LMC is 162,000 light years away from Earth. Solar SystemIt is one of the closest galaxies to the Milky Way. It contains globular clusters, dense star fields, and Tarantula NebulaIt is a supermassive version of the Orion Nebula in the Milky Way Galaxy.

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Space photo of the week: A cosmic ‘fossil’ holding some of the oldest stars in the universe

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