The star cluster Terzan 5

Peering through the thick dust clouds of our galaxy's central parts (the "bulge") with an amazing amount of detail, a team of astronomers has revealed an unusual mix of stars in the stellar grouping known as Terzan 5. Never observed anywhere in the bulge before, this peculiar cocktail of stars suggests that Terzan 5 is in fact one of the bulge's primordial building blocks, most likely the relic of a dwarf galaxy that merged with the Milky Way during its very early days.

This near-infrared image was obtained with the Multi-conjugate Adaptive Optics Demonstrator (MAD) instrument on ESO's Very Large Telescope. Observations in two bands (J and K) were combined. The field of view is 40 arcseconds across.

Crédit:

ESO/F. Ferraro

À propos de l'image

Identification:eso0945a
Type:Observation
Date de publication:25 novembre 2009 12:00
Communiqués de presse en rapport:eso0945
Taille:1355 x 1373 px

À propos de l'objet

Nom:Terzan 5
Type:Milky Way : Star : Grouping : Cluster
Distance:25000 années lumière
Constellation:Sagittarius
Catégorie:Star Clusters

Formats des images

Grand JPEG
464,6 Kio
JPEG taille écran
246,0 Kio

Fonds d'écran

1024x768
255,0 Kio
1280x1024
371,9 Kio
1600x1200
465,0 Kio
1920x1200
524,0 Kio
2048x1536
672,2 Kio

Coordinates

Position (RA):17 48 4.43
Position (Dec):-24° 46' 48.24"
Field of view:0.63 x 0.64 arcminutes
Orientation:North is 179.8° right of vertical