* Astronomy

Blobrana · L

RE: New Globular Cluster FSR 1735

Blobrana · L

New telescope images reveal a previously unknown rich cluster of stars in the inner parts of the Milky Way.
This closely-packed star family, consisting of about 100,000 stars and located some 30,000 light-years away, was spotted with the European Southern Observatory's New Technology Telescope at La Silla, Chile.
The discovery was part of a large-scale search for globular clusters in the Galactic Plane — a slice of space in which the star-rich disk of our galaxy lies. Globular clusters are gravity-bound groups of stars with spherical symmetry created at roughly the same time and from the same material. Typically, they are shrouded by dense clouds of gas and dust in the Milky Way, so infrared radiation is the only mechanism to locate such features.

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Credit ESO

Blobrana · L

Images made with ESO's New Technology Telescope at La Silla by a team of German astronomers reveal a rich circular cluster of stars in the inner parts of our Galaxy. Located 30,000 light-years away, this previously unknown closely-packed group of about 100,000 stars is most likely a new globular cluster.
Star clusters provide us with unique laboratory conditions to investigate various aspects of astrophysics. They represent groups of stars with similar ages, chemical element abundances and distances. Globular clusters, in particular, are fossils in the Milky Way that provide useful information. With ages of about 10 billion years, they are among the oldest objects in our Galaxy - almost as old as the Universe itself. These massive, spherical shaped star clusters are therefore witnesses of the early, mysterious ages of the Universe.

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