#omega centauri

[the-wolf-and-moon]

 Omega Centauri

[cosmonautroger]

NGC 5139, Omega Centauri

[quiltofstars]

ω Centauri, NGC 5139 // Perry Scherer

[spacewonder19]

Millions of Stars in Omega Centauri ©

[spacetelescopescience]

Hubble imaged the stunning core of globular cluster Omega Centauri in 2002. Thanks to gravity’s influence, these stars are “close friends” and have been for billions of years: https://bit.ly/4dVHRgp

[livingforstars]

Globular Cluster Omega Centauri - October 4th, 1996.

"Does an old, red globular cluster have any hot, blue stars? The rightmost picture, taken by the Ultraviolet Imaging Telescope in ultraviolet light, shows that indeed it does. Pictured, Omega Centauri is the largest known globular cluster in our galaxy, containing well over a million stars. Many of these stars are evident in the visible light photograph on the left. When photographed in ultraviolet light, however, different and less numerous stars emerge, as evident on the photograph on the right. Most of these stars are thought to have evolved past the current stage of our Sun. These stars no longer fuse hydrogen to helium in their core but rather fuse helium into carbon. These stars will soon shed their outer envelopes and end up as smoldering carbon embers known as white dwarf stars."

[chibinotan]

Omega Centauri

[nature-godsgardenofeden]

Omega Centauri is our Milky Way's largest star cluster

The Beehive - where Mars is now - is what's called an open star cluster. It contains maybe 1,000 stars. But Omega Centauri, the largest globular star cluster of the Milky Way, contains about 10 million stars. This behemoth, with a diameter of about 160 light-years, is 10 times more massive than a typical globular cluster. It’s easily seen from the Southern Hemisphere and even visible from the southern half of the United States in the late evenings of May and June. Read more about this huge and unusual globular cluster.