An ancient witness

Esahubble_potw2424a_1024

esahubble_potw2424a June 10th, 2024

Credit: ESA/Hubble & NASA, F. Niederhofer, L. Girardi

The globular cluster NGC 2005, featured in this Hubble Picture of the Week, is not unusual in and of itself; but it is a peculiarity in relation to its surroundings. NGC 2005 is located about 750 light-years from the heart of the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC), which is the Milky Way’s largest satellite galaxy and which itself lies about 162 000 light-years from Earth. Globular clusters are densely-packed clusters that can constitute tens of thousands or millions of stars. Their density means that they are tightly gravitationally bound and are therefore very stable. This stability contributes to their longevity: globular clusters can be billions of years old, and as such often comprise very old stars. Thus, studying globular clusters in space can be a little like studying fossils on Earth: where fossils give insights into the characteristics of ancient plants and animals, globular clusters illuminate the characteristics of ancient stars. Current theories of galaxy evolution predict that galaxies merge with one another. It is widely thought that the relatively large galaxies that we observe in the modern Universe were formed via the merging of smaller galaxies. If this is correct, then astronomers would expect to see evidence that the most ancient stars in nearby galaxies originated in different galactic environments. As globular clusters are known to contain ancient stars, and because of their stability, they are an excellent laboratory to test this hypothesis.  NGC 2005 is such a globular cluster, and its very existence has provided evidence to support the theory of galaxy evolution via mergers. Indeed, the stars in NGC 2005 have a chemical composition that is distinct from the stars in the LMC around it. This suggests that the LMC underwent a merger with another galaxy somewhere in its history. That other galaxy has long-since merged and otherwise dispersed, but NGC 2005 remains behind as an ancient witness to the long-past merger.  [Image Description: A globular cluster, appearing as a highly dense and numerous collection of shining stars. Some appear a bit larger and brighter than others, with the brightest having cross-shaped spikes around them. They are scattered mostly uniformly, but in the centre they crowd together more and more densely, and merge into a strong glow at the cluster’s core.] Links Pan of NGC 2005

Provider: Hubble Space Telescope | ESA

Image Source: https://esahubble.org/images/potw2424a/

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 2005
Esahubble_potw2424a_128
 

Position Details Position Details

Position (ICRS)
RA = 5h 30m 10.0s
DEC = -69° 45’ 11.0”
Orientation
North is 15.3° CCW
Field of View
2.6 x 1.9 arcminutes
Constellation
Dorado

Color Mapping Details Color Mapping

  Telescope Spectral Band Wavelength
Blue Hubble (WFC3) Optical (g) 475.0 nm
Green Hubble (WFC3) Optical (g) 475.0 nm
Green Hubble (WFC3) Optical (V) 555.0 nm
Green Hubble (WFC3) Optical (I) 814.0 nm
Red Hubble (WFC3) Optical (I) 814.0 nm
Cyan Hubble (WFC3) Optical (O III) 502.0 nm
Spectrum_base
Blue
Green
Green
Green
Red
Cyan
Esahubble_potw2424a_1280
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ID
potw2424a
Subject Category
Subject Name
NGC 2005
Credits
ESA/Hubble & NASA, F. Niederhofer, L. Girardi
Release Date
2024-06-10T06:00:00
Lightyears
Redshift
Reference Url
https://esahubble.org/images/potw2424a/
Type
Observation
Image Quality
Distance Notes
Facility
Hubble Space Telescope, Hubble Space Telescope, Hubble Space Telescope, Hubble Space Telescope, Hubble Space Telescope, Hubble Space Telescope
Instrument
WFC3, WFC3, WFC3, WFC3, WFC3, WFC3
Color Assignment
Blue, Green, Green, Green, Red, Cyan
Band
Optical, Optical, Optical, Optical, Optical, Optical
Bandpass
g, g, V, I, I, O III
Central Wavelength
475, 475, 555, 814, 814, 502
Start Time
Integration Time
Dataset ID
None, None, None, None, None, None
Notes
Coordinate Frame
ICRS
Equinox
J2000
Reference Value
82.54182991938258, -69.75306210166761
Reference Dimension
3860.0, 2938.0
Reference Pixel
1930.0, 1469.0
Scale
-1.1013331089249402e-05, 1.1013331089249402e-05
Rotation
15.26000000000006
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
potw2424a
Metadata Date
2024-06-04T02:53:01+02:00
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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