It’s full of stars!

Eso_potw2333a_1024

eso_potw2333a August 14th, 2023

Credit: ESO/S. Meingast et al.

This Picture of the Week — taken with ESO’s Visible and Infrared Survey Telescope (VISTA) at Paranal Observatory in Chile — might look like a scene from a snowy winter's night, but it’s not. It’s an infrared image of NGC 6723, a globular cluster located about 28 000 light years from Earth in the constellation Sagittarius. Globular clusters are spherical-shaped groups of stars, tightly bound together by gravity. Their name is derived from the Latin word globulus, meaning small sphere — somewhat misleading given that NGC 6723, as most globular clusters, contains hundred of thousands to millions of stars.  So far, astronomers have found more than 150 globular clusters in our galaxy, the Milky Way, with most of them estimated to be at least 10 billion years old and hosting some of the oldest stars in the galaxy. Globular clusters were key to pinpointing our own location within the Milky Way in the early 20th century. American astronomer Harlow Shapley measured the distances to several globular clusters, and noticed that they were arranged in a roughly spherical distribution, but the Sun was not at its centre. He correctly inferred that the heart of the Milky Way lays at the centre of this distribution of globular clusters, placing the Sun in the suburbs of the galaxy.

Provider: European Southern Observatory

Image Source: https://www.eso.org/public/images/potw2333a/

Curator: European Southern Observatory, Garching bei München, None, Germany

Image Use Policy: Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License

Image Details

Image Type
Observation
Object Name
NGC 6723
Subject - Milky Way
Star > Grouping > Cluster > Globular
Eso_potw2333a_128
 

Position Details

Position (ICRS)
RA = 18h 59m 32.9s
DEC = -36° 38’ 1.6”
Orientation
North is 0.3° CW
Field of View
14.7 x 14.7 arcminutes
Constellation
Sagittarius

Color Mapping

  Telescope Spectral Band Wavelength
Red Visible and Infrared Survey Telescope for Astronomy (VIRCAM) Infrared (Ks) 2.2 µm
Green Visible and Infrared Survey Telescope for Astronomy (VIRCAM) Infrared (H) 1.7 µm
Blue Visible and Infrared Survey Telescope for Astronomy (VIRCAM) Infrared (J) 1.3 µm
Spectrum_base
Red
Green
Blue
Eso_potw2333a_1280
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ID
potw2333a
Subject Category
B.3.6.4.2  
Subject Name
NGC 6723
Credits
ESO/S. Meingast et al.
Release Date
2023-08-14T06:00:00
Lightyears
Redshift
Reference Url
https://www.eso.org/public/images/potw2333a/
Type
Observation
Image Quality
Distance Notes
Facility
Visible and Infrared Survey Telescope for Astronomy, Visible and Infrared Survey Telescope for Astronomy, Visible and Infrared Survey Telescope for Astronomy
Instrument
VIRCAM, VIRCAM, VIRCAM
Color Assignment
Red, Green, Blue
Band
Infrared, Infrared, Infrared
Bandpass
Ks, H, J
Central Wavelength
2150, 1650, 1250
Start Time
Integration Time
Dataset ID
None, None, None
Notes
Coordinate Frame
ICRS
Equinox
J2000
Reference Value
284.887227423, -36.6337717386
Reference Dimension
2651.0, 2650.0
Reference Pixel
1326.0, 1324.5
Scale
-9.25879097927e-05, 9.25913885688e-05
Rotation
-0.34422783714683
Coordinate System Projection:
TAN
Quality
Full
FITS Header
Notes
Creator (Curator)
European Southern Observatory
URL
https://www.eso.org
Name
Email
Telephone
Address
Karl-Schwarzschild-Strasse 2
City
Garching bei München
State/Province
None
Postal Code
D-85748
Country
Germany
Rights
Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License
Publisher
European Southern Observatory
Publisher ID
eso
Resource ID
potw2333a
Metadata Date
2023-08-14T16:07:40.912586
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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