This immense ball of half a million stars older than the Sun lies over 30,000 light-years away. Cataloged as M3 [
http://seds.org/mes…] (and NGC 5272 [
http://www.mporzio.…cluster_4.php?ggc=NG C 5272 ]), it is one of about 150 globular star clusters [
http://en.wikipedia…] that roam the halo of our Milky Way Galaxy [
http://www.seds.org…]. Even in this impressively sharp image [
http://karelteuwen.…], individual stars are difficult to distinguished in the densely [
http://antwrp.gsfc.…] packed core, but colors are apparent for the bright stars on the cluster's outskirts. M3's many cool "red" giant stars take on a yellowish cast, while hotter giants and pulsating variable stars [
http://antwrp.gsfc.…] look light blue. A closer look [
http://www.fleminga…] at the deep telescopic view also reveals a host of background galaxies. Itself about 200 light-years across, the giant star cluster is a relatively bright, easy target for binoculars in the northern constellation Canes Venatici, The Hunting Dogs [
http://hawastsoc.or…], and not far from Arcturus [
http://www.astro.ui…].
Explanation
This immense ball of half a million stars older than the Sun lies over 30,000 light-years away. Cataloged as M3 [
http://seds.org/mes…] (and NGC 5272 [
http://www.mporzio.…cluster_4.php?ggc=NG C 5272 ]), it is one of about 150 globular star clusters [
http://en.wikipedia…] that roam the halo of our Milky Way Galaxy [
http://www.seds.org…]. Even in this impressively sharp image [
http://karelteuwen.…], individual stars are difficult to distinguished in the densely [
http://antwrp.gsfc.…] packed core, but colors are apparent for the bright stars on the cluster's outskirts. M3's many cool "red" giant stars take on a yellowish cast, while hotter giants and pulsating variable stars [
http://antwrp.gsfc.…] look light blue. A closer look [
http://www.fleminga…] at the deep telescopic view also reveals a host of background galaxies. Itself about 200 light-years across, the giant star cluster is a relatively bright, easy target for binoculars in the northern constellation Canes Venatici, The Hunting Dogs [
http://hawastsoc.or…], and not far from Arcturus [
http://www.astro.ui…].
Explanation
