An ancient cluster of stars against a stunning background

Among the myriad of stars in this image shines NGC 2257, a collection of cosmic gems bound tightly by gravity. Many billions of years old, but still sparkling brightly, it is an eye-catching astronomical object.

NGC 2257 is a globular cluster, the name given to the roughly spherical concentrations of stars that orbit galactic cores, but are often found far out from the centres in the halo areas of galaxies. Globular clusters contain very old stars, being typically over 10 billion years old, and can therefore be used like a "fossil record" to learn more about the Universe’s past. They are densely packed, with tens to hundreds of thousands of stars gathered within a diameter of just a few tens of light-years. NGC 2257 lies on the outskirts of the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC), a satellite galaxy of our own Milky Way. It is one of 15 very old globular clusters in the LMC.

The image is made from data taken with the Wide Field Imager instrument on the 2.2-metre MPG/ESO telescope at La Silla, in B, V and I filters, which are shown here in blue, green and red respectively. The field of view is approximately 20 by 20 arcminutes. These observations were made as part of the ESO Imaging Survey project, which was planned to make public imaging surveys to identify targets for follow-up observations with the Very Large Telescope.

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Źródło:

ESO

O zdjęciu

Identyfikator:potw1046a
Typ:Obserwacje
Data publikacji:15 listopada 2010 10:00
Rozmiar:4741 x 4741 px

O obiekcie

Nazwa:NGC 2257
Typ:Local Universe : Star : Grouping : Cluster : Globular
Odległość:170000 lat świetlnych
Constellation:Dorado
Kategoria:Stars

Formaty zdjęć

Pełen rozmiar
52,8 MB
Wielki JPEG
8,1 MB
JPEG do druku
5,0 MB

Powiększenie


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1024x768
255,5 KB
1280x1024
393,3 KB
1600x1200
553,9 KB
1920x1200
678,4 KB
2048x1536
909,9 KB

Współrzędne

Pozycja (RA):6 30 12.11
Pozycja (Dec):-64° 19' 36.95"
Pole widzenia:18.80 x 18.80 arcminutes
Orientacja:North is 0.0° prawo of vertical

Kolory i filtry

PasmoDługość faliTeleskop
Optyczny
B
435 nmMPG/ESO 2.2-metre telescope
WFI
Optyczny
V
551 nmMPG/ESO 2.2-metre telescope
WFI
Podczerwony
I
806 nmMPG/ESO 2.2-metre telescope
WFI