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Rolf Olsen | all galleries >> Astrophotography >> Globular clusters > Terzan 5
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17-JUN-2010

Terzan 5

This image shows Terzan 5, one of the globular clusters lying closest to the galactic centre at only 0.6kpc. Terzan 5 is significantly reddened and heavily obscured by the massive interstellar dust clouds in the direction of the Milky Way centre, by as much as 7 visual magnitudes.
It was discovered in 2009 that Terzan 5 contains at least two different populations of stars at 12 billion years and 6 billion years old respectively, which implies that it is not a true globular cluster but instead likely a remnant core of a dwarf galaxy which the Milky Way captured some time in the distant past. In this image it clearly features a somewhat comet-like shape, perhaps from being distorted by the Milky Way itself.
Other globulars which are suspected remnant galaxy cores are Omega Centauri and M54.

OPTICS 10" Newtonian f/5
MOUNT Losmandy G11 equatorial
CAMERA Philips ToUCam Pro SC1 webcam
FILTERS None
EXPOSURE 118 x 30.5 s
DATE/TIME 16/06/2010
LOCATION My backyard observatory in west Auckland, New Zealand


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