The Omega Centauri globular cluster and the area surveyed

Image of the Omega Centauri globular cluster from the the Digital Sky Survey (left). The image covers a region of 2.1 x 1.1 degrees on the sky, illustrating the very large extent of this cluster of stars. The right image is the ACS exposure taken with the Hubble Space Telescope which the astronomers used to detect and study the two distinct populations of hydrogen core-burning stars. The position of the ACS field with respect to the full globular cluster is shown as the red box. This field was chosen to lie in the outskirts of the cluster in order to ensure that there won't be any "crowding" problems and that there would be only one star in each FLAMES/VLT fiber.

Crédit:

ESO

À propos de l'image

Identification:eso0509a
Type:Collage
Date de publication:15 mars 2005
Communiqués de presse en rapport:eso0509
Taille:4364 x 2020 px

À propos de l'objet

Nom:NGC 5139, Omega Centauri
Type:Milky Way : Star : Grouping : Cluster : Globular
Distance:17000 années lumière
Catégorie:Star Clusters

Formats des images

Grand JPEG
381,2 Kio
JPEG taille écran
206,1 Kio

Couleurs & filtres

DomaineTélescope
VisibleHubble Space Telescope
ACS
Visible
R
Digitized Sky Survey 2
Visible
B
Digitized Sky Survey 2

Notes: The right image was captured by the Hubble Space Telescope. The left image is an excerpt from the Digital Sky Survey.