球狀星團 NGC 6752
Globular Star Cluster NGC 6752
來源:Massimo Di Fusco|發表日期:2024-10-25
球狀星團NGC 6752 遊蕩在銀河系的光環中,它位於南天星座約 13000 光年之外。NGC 6752 的年齡超過 100 億歲,是繼半人馬座歐米茄星團、土衛六 47 星團和Messier 22 星團之後,地球夜空中第四亮的球狀星團。它在一個直徑約 100 光年的球體中容納了 10 萬多顆恆星。對NGC 6752 的望遠鏡探測發現,靠近星團核心的恆星中有很大一部分是多恆星系統。它們還揭示了藍色雜星的存在,這些恆星似乎太年輕,質量太大,無法存在於星團中,而星團中所有恆星的年齡預計至少是太陽年齡的兩倍。藍色雜星被認為是在星團核心稠密的恆星環境中由恆星合併和碰撞形成的。這張清晰的彩色合成照片還顯示了星團中淡黃色調的古老紅巨星。(注:距離星團中心約 8 點鐘方向的明亮尖刺狀藍色恆星是 NGC 6752 視線沿線的前景恆星。)
原文:Some 13,000 light-years away toward the southern constellation Pavo, the globular star cluster NGC 6752 roams the halo of our Milky Way galaxy. Over 10 billion years old, NGC 6752 follows clusters Omega Centauri, 47 Tucanae, and Messier 22 as the fourth brightest globular in planet Earth's night sky. It holds over 100 thousand stars in a sphere about 100 light-years in diameter. Telescopic explorations of NGC 6752 have found that a remarkable fraction of the stars near the cluster's core, are multiple star systems. They also reveal the presence of blue straggle stars, stars which appear to be too young and massive to exist in a cluster whose stars are all expected to be at least twice as old as the Sun. The blue stragglers are thought to be formed by star mergers and collisions in the dense stellar environment at the cluster's core. This sharp color composite also features the cluster's ancient red giant stars in yellowish hues. (Note: The bright, spiky blue star about 8 o'clock from the cluster center is a foreground star along the line-of-sight to NGC 6752)
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