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TOPIC: Messier 54

Blobrana

L

Posts: 131433

Date: Sep 10 16:15 2014

RE: Messier 54	Permalink

This Star Cluster Is Not What It Seems This new image from the VLT Survey Telescope at ESO's Paranal Observatory in northern Chile shows a vast collection of stars, the globular cluster Messier 54. This cluster looks very similar to many others but it has a secret. Messier 54 doesn't belong to the Milky Way, but is part of a small satellite galaxy, the Sagittarius Dwarf Galaxy. This unusual parentage has now allowed astronomers to use the Very Large Telescope (VLT) to test whether there are also unexpectedly low levels of the element lithium in stars outside the Milky Way. Read more __________________

Blobrana

L

Posts: 131433

Date: Jul 23 18:05 2014

NGC 6715	Permalink

Messier 54 (also M54, NGC 6715, ESO 458-SC8 and GCL 104) is a magnitude +8.37 globular star cluster located 87,000 light-years away in the constellation Sagittarius. The cluster was discovered by French astronomer Charles Messier using a 8.38 cm (3.3-inch) refracting telescope at the Hôtel de Cluny (now the Musée national du Moyen Age), in Paris, France on the 24th July 1778. Right Ascension 17h 22m 39.9s, Declination +41° 06' 08" It was discovered in 1994 that M54 most likely belongs to the Sagittarius Dwarf Elliptical Galaxy (SagDEG), making it the first globular cluster formerly thought to be part of our galaxy reassigned to extragalactic status, even if not recognized as such for nearly two and a quarter centuries. Read more __________________

Blobrana

L

Posts: 131433

Date: Nov 7 18:13 2011

Messier 54	Permalink

First Globular Cluster Outside the Milky Way The object shown in this beautiful Hubble image, dubbed Messier 54, could be just another globular cluster, but this dense and faint group of stars was in fact the first globular cluster found that is outside our galaxy. Discovered by the famous astronomer Charles Messier in 1778, Messier 54 belongs to a satellite of the Milky Way called the Sagittarius Dwarf Elliptical Galaxy. Messier had no idea of the significance of his discovery at the time, and it wasn't until over two centuries later, in 1994, that astronomers found Messier 54 to be part of the miniature galaxy and not our own. Current estimates indicate that the Sagittarius dwarf, and hence the cluster, is situated almost 90 000 light-years away - more than three times as far from the centre of our galaxy than the Solar System. Read more __________________

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