NASA Astronomy Picture of the Day Collection

Glimpse of a Globular Star Cluster

Not a glimpse of this cluster [ http://www.spitzer.…ssc2004-16/quickfact s.shtml ] of stars can be seen [ http://www.spitzer.…ssc2004-16b.shtml ] in the inset visible light image (lower right). Still, the infrared view [ http://www.spitzer.…release.shtml ] from the Spitzer [ http://www.spitzer.…] Space Telescope reveals a massive globular star cluster of about 300,000 suns in an apparently empty region of sky in the constellation Aquila. When astronomers used infrared [ http://coolcosmos.i…light_lessons/our_wo rld_different_light/ ] cameras to peer through obscuring dust [ http://antwrp.gsfc.…] in the plane of our Milky Way [ http://antwrp.gsfc.…] galaxy, they were rewarded with the surprise discovery of the star cluster, likely one of the last such star clusters [ http://www.seds.org…] to be found. Globular star clusters [ http://hubblesite.o…2002/10/astrofile/ ] normally roam [ http://www.belmontn…] the halo of the Milky Way, ancient relics [ http://antwrp.gsfc.…] of our galaxy's formative years. Yet the Spitzer image shows this otherwise hidden cluster crossing through [ http://antwrp.gsfc.…] the middle of the galactic plane some 10,000 light-years away. At that distance, the picture spans only about 20 light-years. In the false color infrared image, the red streak is a dust cloud which seems to lie behind the cluster core.

H. Kobulnicky (Univ. of Wyoming [ http://physics.uwyo…]) et al. [ http://www.spitzer.…quickfacts.shtml ], JPL [ http://www.jpl.nasa…], Caltech [ http://www.spitzer.…], NASA [ http://www.nasa.gov…]
(Visible Light Inset: DSS [ http://www-gsss.sts…Dss/dss_home.HTM ])

Wyoming

Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC)

Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL)

Visible Light

Aquila

star cluster

http://antwrp.gsfc.…

SPD-APOD-ap041014