Star Clusters
   HOME



picture info

Star Clusters
A star cluster is a group of stars held together by self-gravitation. Two main types of star clusters can be distinguished: globular clusters, tight groups of ten thousand to millions of old stars which are gravitationally bound; and open clusters, less tight groups of stars, generally containing fewer than a few hundred members. As they move through the galaxy, over time, open clusters become disrupted by the gravitational influence of giant molecular clouds, so that the clusters we observe are often young. Even though they are no longer gravitationally bound, they will continue to move in broadly the same direction through space and are then known as stellar associations, sometimes referred to as ''moving groups''. Globular clusters, with more members and more mass, remain intact for far longer and the globular clusters we observe are usually billions of years old. Star clusters visible to the naked eye include the Pleiades and Hyades open clusters, and the globular cluster ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  




M44 47x300s-10°C O30 G0 PM RGB 03032022
M44 or M-44 may refer to: Transportation * BMW M44, an inline 4 gasoline engine produced by BMW * M-44 (Michigan highway), a state highway in Michigan * M44 (Cape Town), a Metropolitan Route in Cape Town, South Africa * M44 (Johannesburg), a Metropolitan Route in Johannesburg, South Africa * M44 motorway (Hungary), an under-construction motorway * MÁV Class M44, the Polish code-name for a Hungarian shunting diesel locomotive Weaponry * 44M Tas, a Hungarian medium/heavy tank design of World War II * ALFA M44, a Spanish machine gun developed during World War II * Hungarian 44M, an unguided anti-tank rocket designed by Hungary in World War II * M44 generator cluster, an American chemical cluster bomb * M44 self propelled howitzer, 1950s US self-propelled 155 mm artillery * Panssarimiina m/44, a Finnish anti-tank blast mine * Tikkakoski M44, a Finnish submachine gun * A model of the Mosin–Nagant, a Russian bolt-action rifle * A Yugoslav People's Army's internal desi ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  


picture info

Orion Nebula
The Orion Nebula (also known as Messier 42, M42, or NGC 1976) is a diffuse nebula in the Milky Way situated south of Orion's Belt in the Orion (constellation), constellation of Orion, and is known as the middle "star" in the "sword" of Orion. It is one of the brightest nebulae and is visible to the naked eye in the night sky with an apparent magnitude of 4.0. It is away and is the closest region of massive star formation to Earth. M42 is estimated to be 25 light-years across (so its apparent size from Earth is approximately 1 degree). It has a mass of about 2,000 times that of the Sun. Older texts frequently refer to the Orion Nebula as the Great Nebula in Orion or the Great Orion Nebula. The Orion Nebula is one of the most scrutinized and photographed objects in the night sky and is among the most intensely studied celestial features.Press release,Astronomers Spot The Great Orion Nebula's Successor", Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, 2006. The nebula has ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  


picture info

Molecular Clouds
A molecular cloud—sometimes called a stellar nursery if star formation is occurring within—is a type of interstellar cloud of which the density and size permit absorption nebulae, the formation of molecules (most commonly molecular hydrogen, H2), and the formation of H II regions. This is in contrast to other areas of the interstellar medium that contain predominantly ionized gas. Molecular hydrogen is difficult to detect by infrared and radio observations, so the molecule most often used to determine the presence of H2 is carbon monoxide (CO). The ratio between CO luminosity and H2 mass is thought to be constant, although there are reasons to doubt this assumption in observations of some other galaxies. Within molecular clouds are regions with higher density, where much dust and many gas cores reside, called clumps. These clumps are the beginning of star formation if gravitational forces are sufficient to cause the dust and gas to collapse. Research and discovery The histo ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  


picture info

Cosmic Dust
Cosmic dustalso called extraterrestrial dust, space dust, or star dustis dust that occurs in outer space or has fallen onto Earth. Most cosmic dust particles measure between a few molecules and , such as micrometeoroids (30 μm). Cosmic dust can be further distinguished by its astronomical location: intergalactic dust, interstellar dust, interplanetary dust (as in the zodiacal cloud), and circumplanetary dust (as in a planetary ring). There are several methods to obtain space dust measurement. In the Solar System, interplanetary dust causes the zodiacal light. Solar System dust includes comet dust, planetary dust (like from Mars), asteroidal dust, dust from the Kuiper belt, and interstellar dust passing through the Solar System. Thousands of tons of cosmic dust are estimated to reach Earth's surface every year, with most grains having a mass between 10−16 kg (0.1 pg) and 10−4 kg (0.1 g). The density of the dust cloud through which the Earth is traveling is approximately ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  


picture info

Chandra X-ray View Of Orion
Chandra (), also known as Soma (), is the Hindu god of the Moon, and is associated with the night, plants and vegetation. He is one of the Navagraha (nine planets of Hinduism) and Dikpala (guardians of the directions). Etymology and other names The word "Chandra" literally means "bright, shining or glittering" and is used for the "Moon" in Sanskrit and other Indo-Aryan languages.''Graha Sutras'' by Ernst Wilhelm, published by Kala Occult Publishers p. 51 It is also the name of various other figures in Hindu mythology, including an asura and a Suryavamsha king. It is also a common Indian name and surname. Both male and female name variations exist in many South Asian languages that originate from Sanskrit. Some of the synonyms of Chandra include ''Soma'' (distill), ''Indu'' (bright drop), ''Atrisuta'' (son of Atri), ''Shashin'' or ''Shachin'' (marked by hare), ''Taradhipa'' (lord of stars) and ''Nishakara'' (the night maker), ''Nakshatrapati'' (lord of the Nakshatra), ''Os ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  


picture info

Classical Cepheids
Classical Cepheids are a type of Cepheid variable star. They are young, population I variable stars that exhibit regular radial Stellar pulsation, pulsations with periods of a few days to a few weeks and visual amplitudes ranging from a few tenths of a Magnitude (astronomy), magnitude up to about 2 magnitudes. Classical Cepheids are also known as Population I Cepheids, Type I Cepheids, and Delta Cepheid variables. There exists a well-defined Period-luminosity relation, relationship between a classical Cepheid variable's luminosity and pulsation period, securing Cepheids as viable standard candles for establishing the galactic and extragalactic distance scales. Hubble Space Telescope (HST) observations of classical Cepheid variables have enabled firmer constraints on Hubble's law, which describes the expansion rate of the observable Universe. Classical Cepheids have also been used to clarify many characteristics of our galaxy, such as the local spiral arm structure and the Sun's di ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  


picture info

Hubble Constant
Hubble's law, also known as the Hubble–Lemaître law, is the observation in physical cosmology that galaxies are moving away from Earth at speeds proportional to their distance. In other words, the farther a galaxy is from the Earth, the faster it moves away. A galaxy's recessional velocity is typically determined by measuring its redshift, a shift in the frequency of light emitted by the galaxy. The discovery of Hubble's law is attributed to work published by Edwin Hubble in 1929, but the notion of the universe expanding at a calculable rate was first derived from general relativity equations in 1922 by Alexander Friedmann. The Friedmann equations showed the universe might be expanding, and presented the expansion speed if that were the case. Before Hubble, astronomer Carl Wilhelm Wirtz had, in 1922 and 1924, deduced with his own data that galaxies that appeared smaller and dimmer had larger redshifts and thus that more distant galaxies recede faster from the observer. In ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  


picture info

Standard Candle
The cosmic distance ladder (also known as the extragalactic distance scale) is the succession of methods by which astronomers determine the distances to celestial objects. A ''direct'' distance measurement of an astronomical object is possible only for those objects that are "close enough" (within about a thousand parsecs or 3e16 km) to Earth. The techniques for determining distances to more distant objects are all based on various measured correlations between methods that work at close distances and methods that work at larger distances. Several methods rely on a ''standard candle'', which is an astronomical object that has a known luminosity. The ladder analogy arises because no single technique can measure distances at all ranges encountered in astronomy. Instead, one method can be used to measure nearby distances, a second can be used to measure nearby to intermediate distances, and so on. Each rung of the ladder provides information that can be used to determine the distan ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  


picture info

Variable Stars
A variable star is a star whose brightness as seen from Earth (its apparent magnitude) changes systematically with time. This variation may be caused by a change in emitted light or by something partly blocking the light, so variable stars are classified as either: * ''Intrinsic variables'', whose luminosity actually changes periodically; for example, because the star swells and shrinks. * ''Extrinsic variables'', whose apparent changes in brightness are due to changes in the amount of their light that can reach Earth; for example, because the star Eclipsing binaries, has an orbiting companion that sometimes eclipses it. Many, possibly most, stars exhibit at least some oscillation in luminosity: the energy output of the Sun, for example, varies by about 0.1% over an 11-year solar cycle. Discovery An ancient Egyptian calendar of lucky and unlucky days composed some 3,200 years ago may be the oldest preserved historical document of the discovery of a variable star, the eclipsin ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  


picture info

Cepheids
A Cepheid variable () is a type of variable star that pulsates radially, varying in both diameter and temperature. It changes in brightness, with a well-defined stable period (typically 1–100 days) and amplitude. Cepheids are important cosmic benchmarks for scaling galactic and extragalactic distances; a strong direct relationship exists between a Cepheid variable's luminosity and its pulsation period. This characteristic of classical Cepheids was discovered in 1908 by Henrietta Swan Leavitt after studying thousands of variable stars in the Magellanic Clouds. The discovery establishes the ''true luminosity'' of a Cepheid by observing its pulsation period. This in turn gives the distance to the star by comparing its known luminosity to its observed brightness, calibrated by directly observing the parallax distance to the closest Cepheids such as RS Puppis and Polaris. Cepheids change brightness due to the κ–mechanism, which occurs when opacity in a star increases with ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  


Messier 25
Messier 25, also known as IC 4725, is an open cluster of stars in the southern constellation of Sagittarius. The first recorded observation of this cluster was made by Philippe Loys de Chéseaux in 1745 and it was included in Charles Messier's list of nebulous objects in 1764. The cluster is located near some obscuring features, with a dark lane passing near the center. M25 is at a distance of about away from Earth and is 67.6 million years old. The spatial dimension of this cluster is about across. It has an estimated mass of , of which about 24% is interstellar matter. A Delta Cephei type variable star designated '' U Sagittarii'' is a member of this cluster, as are two red giants, one of which is a binary system. New research indicates M25 may constitute a ternary star cluster together with NGC 6716 and Collinder 394. See also * List of Messier objects The Messier objects are a set of 110 astronomical objects catalogued by the French astronomer Charles Messier ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  


picture info

NGC 884
NGC 884 (also known as χ Persei) is an open cluster located 7640 light years away in the constellation of Perseus. It is the east component of the Double Cluster with NGC 869. NGC 869 and 884 are often designated h and χ Persei, respectively.Some confusion surrounds what Bayer intended by these designations. It is sometimes claimed that Bayer could not have resolved the pair into two patches of nebulosity, and that Chi refers to the Double Cluster and h to a nearby star; see Stephen James O'Meara and Daniel W.E. Green, 2003, "The Mystery of the Double Cluster", ''Sky and Telescope'', Vol. 105, No. 2 (February 2003), p. 116–119. Bayer's ''Uranometria'' chart for Perseus does not show them as nebulous objects, but his chart for Cassiopeia does, and they are described as ''Nebulosa Duplex'' in Schiller's '' Coelum Stellatum Christianum'', which was assembled with Bayer's help; see Morton Wagman, ''Lost Stars'', McDonald & Woodward, 2003, , p. 240. The cluster is about 14 milli ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]