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.

Crediti:

ESO

Riguardo l'immagine

Identificazione:eso0509a
Tipo:Collage
Data di rilascio:15 Marzo 2005
Notizie relative:eso0509
Grandezza:4364 x 2020 px

Riguardo all'oggetto

Nome:NGC 5139, Omega Centauri
Tipo:Milky Way : Star : Grouping : Cluster : Globular
Distanza:17000 Anni luce
Categoria:Star Clusters

Formati delle immagini

JPEG grande
381,2 KB

Colori e filtri

BandaTelescopio
OtticoHubble Space Telescope
ACS
Ottico
R
Digitized Sky Survey 2
Ottico
B
Digitized Sky Survey 2

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