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.

Herkunftsnachweis:

ESO

Über das Bild

ID:eso0509a
Typ:Zusammenstellung
Veröffentlichungsdatum:15. März 2005
Dazugehörige Veröffentlichungen:eso0509
Größe:4364 x 2020 px

Über das Objekt

Name:NGC 5139, Omega Centauri
Typ:Milky Way : Star : Grouping : Cluster : Globular
Entfernung:17000 Lichtjahre
Kategorie:Star Clusters

Bildformate

Großes JPEG
381,2 KB

Farben & Filter

SpektralbereichTeleskop
OptischHubble Space Telescope
ACS
Optisch
R
Digitized Sky Survey 2
Optisch
B
Digitized Sky Survey 2

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