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What it is : Globular bunch NGC 2005
Where it is:162,000 light - years away , in the Large Magellanic Cloud , a satellite wandflower of theMilky Way , and seeable in the configuration Dorado
The globular cluster NGC 2005 as seen by the Hubble Space Telescope.
When it was share : July 7 , 2024
Why it ’s so special : This new range of a function from theHubble Space Telescopeshows an target with mystic origins that ’s normally seen in the Milky Way : a globular cluster , a dumbly packed and gravitationally bound radical of tens of yard or millions of star . However , NGC 2005 is actually located in the Large Magellanic Cloud ( LMC ) , a dwarf galaxy snug to the Milky Way , and can be easily seen at night from the Southern Hemisphere .
globose clusters are retrieve to be billions of years sure-enough . About 150 are known to exist in the halo of theMilky Way . They orbit its centre in the opposite focal point as most other objects in our galaxy , providing evidence for a possibility that they were captured while the Milky Way was coalesce with other galaxies , concord toNASA . That ’s how stargazer reckon galaxies develop and grow . Another clue is that spheric clusters hostsome of the oldest stars in the universe .
The full-size image of NGC 2005.
touch on : The Milky Way will be visible without a scope this summer . Here are the central nights to watch for .
NGC 2005 is the perfect test pillowcase because it exists outside the Milky Way but is faithful enough to be studied carefully . It ’s about 750 light - years from the heart of the LMC , the biggest of about 40 dwarf galaxies near the Milky Way . Many of these midget galaxies are cogitate to orbit the Milky Way , though recentdata from the Gaia spacecraftsuggest that many of them may just be passing by .
If galaxy evolve by merging with others , there ought to be ancient stars in all galaxies whose chemical compositions differ from those around them . That ’s precisely the case with NGC 2005 . It come out to be a relic — possibly the nub — of a dwarf galax that has long since been down .
The LMC can be easily seen from the Southern Hemisphere on almost any decipherable night with agood little telescopeor a pair ofstargazing binoculars . The LMC is 162,000 light - years from thesolar system , making it one of the closest galaxies to the Milky Way . It contains globular clusters , thick star sphere and theTarantula Nebula , a supermassive version of the Milky Way ’s Orion Nebula .
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