eso_eso9411a May 27th, 1994
Credit: ESO
This photo of Omega Centauri, the brightest and largest globular cluster in the sky, was obtained with the Danish 1.5 m telescope at the ESO La Silla observatory. It shows the central part only; the cluster is actually much larger than the field reproduced here. At a distance of about 16,500 light-years, the diameter of the field corresponds to a linear distance of about 90 light-years. Within this area, there are hundreds of thousands of stars which belong to the cluster.A recent investigation carried out with the CORAVEL instrument, also attached to this telescope, has shown that the total mass of Omega Centauri is in excess of 5 million solar masses, making it by far the most massive cluster of its type on the Milky Way galaxy.
Provider: European Southern Observatory
Image Source: https://www.eso.org/public/images/eso9411a/
Curator: European Southern Observatory, Garching bei München, Germany
Image Use Policy: Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License
Detailed color mapping information coming soon...
Providers | Sign In