Celestial fossils

Esahubble_potw2409a_1024

esahubble_potw2409a February 26th, 2024

Credit: ESA/Hubble & NASA, A. Sarajedini, F. Niederhofer

This densely populated group of stars is the globular cluster known as NGC 1841, which is found within the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC), a satellite galaxy to the Milky Way galaxy that lies about 162 000 light-years away. Satellite galaxies are galaxies that are bound by gravity in orbits around a more massive host galaxy. We typically think of our galaxy’s nearest galactic companion as being the Andromeda Galaxy, but it would be more accurate to say that Andromeda is the nearest galaxy that is not in orbit around the Milky Way galaxy. In fact, our galaxy is orbited by tens of known satellite galaxies that are far closer than Andromeda, the largest and brightest of which is the LMC, which is easily visible to the naked eye from the southern hemisphere (although this is decreasingly the case thanks to light pollution).  The LMC is home to many globular clusters. These celestial bodies fall somewhere between open clusters — which are much less dense and tightly bound — and small, compact galaxies. Increasingly sophisticated observations have revealed the stellar populations and other characteristics of globular clusters to be varied and complex, and it is not well understood how these tightly-packed clusters form. However, there are certain consistencies across all globular clusters: they are very stable and so are capable of lasting a long time, and can therefore be very old. This means that globular clusters often contain large numbers of very old stars, which make them something akin to celestial ‘fossils’. Just as fossils provide insight into the early development of life on Earth, globular clusters such as NGC 1841 can provide insights into very early star formation in galaxies. [Image Description: A cluster of stars. Most of the stars are very small and uniform in size, and they are notably bluish and cluster more densely together towards the centre of the image. Some appear larger in the foreground. The stars give way to a dark background at the corners.] Links Pan: Celestial fossils

Provider: Hubble Space Telescope | ESA

Image Source: https://esahubble.org/images/potw2409a/

Curator: ESA/Hubble, Baltimore, MD, United States

Image Use Policy: Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License

Image Details Image Details

Image Type
Observation
Object Name
NGC 1841
Esahubble_potw2409a_128
 

Position Details Position Details

Position (ICRS)
RA = 4h 45m 20.7s
DEC = -83° 59’ 51.5”
Orientation
North is 129.4° CCW
Field of View
2.6 x 2.0 arcminutes
Constellation
Mensa

Color Mapping Details Color Mapping

  Telescope Spectral Band Wavelength
Purple Hubble (WFC3) Optical (U) 336.0 nm
Blue Hubble (ACS) Optical (V) 606.0 nm
Green Hubble (ACS) Optical (V) 606.0 nm
Green Hubble (ACS) Optical (I) 814.0 nm
Red Hubble (ACS) Optical (I) 814.0 nm
Spectrum_base
Purple
Blue
Green
Green
Red
Esahubble_potw2409a_1280
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ID
potw2409a
Subject Category
Subject Name
NGC 1841
Credits
ESA/Hubble & NASA, A. Sarajedini, F. Niederhofer
Release Date
2024-02-26T06:00:00
Lightyears
Redshift
Reference Url
https://esahubble.org/images/potw2409a/
Type
Observation
Image Quality
Distance Notes
Facility
Hubble Space Telescope, Hubble Space Telescope, Hubble Space Telescope, Hubble Space Telescope, Hubble Space Telescope
Instrument
WFC3, ACS, ACS, ACS, ACS
Color Assignment
Purple, Blue, Green, Green, Red
Band
Optical, Optical, Optical, Optical, Optical
Bandpass
U, V, V, I, I
Central Wavelength
336, 606, 606, 814, 814
Start Time
Integration Time
Dataset ID
None, None, None, None, None
Notes
Coordinate Frame
ICRS
Equinox
J2000
Reference Value
71.33637911942613, -83.99765205550412
Reference Dimension
3909.0, 3046.0
Reference Pixel
1954.5, 1523.0
Scale
-1.1016322739875971e-05, 1.1016322739875971e-05
Rotation
129.39999999999972
Coordinate System Projection:
TAN
Quality
Full
FITS Header
Notes
Creator (Curator)
ESA/Hubble
URL
https://esahubble.org
Name
Email
Telephone
Address
ESA Office, Space Telescope Science Institute, 3700 San Martin Dr
City
Baltimore
State/Province
MD
Postal Code
21218
Country
United States
Rights
Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License
Publisher
ESA/Hubble
Publisher ID
esahubble
Resource ID
potw2409a
Metadata Date
2024-02-08T15:23:24+01:00
Metadata Version
1.1
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Detailed color mapping information coming soon...

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There is no distance meta data in this image.

 

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