Panning across the giant elliptical galaxy Centaurus A (NGC 5128) and its strange globular clusters

This close-up video sequence shows the huge elliptical galaxy NGC 5128 (also known as Centaurus A). This object is the closest such galaxy to the Earth, at a distance of about 12 million light-years. Observations with ESO’s Very Large Telescope in Chile have discovered a new class of “dark” globular star clusters around this galaxy. These are marked in red. They appear very similar to other globulars around this galaxy but contain much more mass.