NGC 5139 or commonly known as the Omega Centauri is considered to be the largest and brightest among other star clusters found and archived throughout the years. It is usually found in the southern skies or in the southern hemisphere and slowly moves up north during the season of spring.
A group of up to a thousand young stars that were produced from one giant molecular cloud held together by joint gravitation is better known as an Open cluster. It is found in irregular and spiral galaxies where there is active star formation. It is sometimes referred to as Galactic clusters, because they are almost
The Oort cloud is an enormous spherical cloud composed of comets and dust. Its size is hypothesized to be at 2000 or 5000 to 50,000 astronomical units (AU)-an AU equals the distance between the earth and sun. The sphere is so huge that its border is closer to the Earth’s nearest star as opposed to
The Omega nebula is a star-forming region in the constellation of Sagittarius. It is also called the Swan Nebula and the Horseshoe Nebula, as it takes the shape of both a swan and a horse shoe. It was discovered by Swiss astronomer Philippe Loys de Chéseaux in 1745-1746. It is just one of many galactic
The Nebulae and Clusters of Stars NGC, or New General Catalogue is a list or catalogue of deep sky objects. It was first compiled by a person named J. L. E. Dreyer in 1888, using observed data from various astronomers, among them William Herschel and his son, and James Dunlop. Dreyer was commissioned by the
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What are extragalactic objects, and why study them? Extragalactic objects give us a hint on what the universe really is like. Extragalactic objects are, simply put, all astronomical objects outside of the Milky Way.
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Pulsar is a contraction of two words, pulse and star (much like how quasar, meaning quasi-stellar object, was derived). By general definition, a pulsar is a small dense star (believed to be a neutron star) that emits mostly brief but intense bursts of electromagnetic radiation. The beam of radio wave produced is visible when pointed
The word intergalactic in astronomy may mean different things. It can be associated to travel, mediums, or space itself. From the word itself, the prefix ?inter-? means in between or across, and ?galactic? means galaxy. Basically, the term means between galaxies, and it may be an interaction or other activity when two galaxies meet and
A Lenticular galaxy is basically a kind of galaxy which borders in between an elliptical and spiral galaxy when classified. They are shaped like a disk, and have almost no interstellar matter, and very little formation of stars. There are, however, remnants of small dust particles. A lot of aging stars are present in this
The universe is continuously being explored by astronomers and scientists. This exploration and research endeavors have led to the discovery of many other galaxies and celestial phenomena that had been unknown to us for many years. Now, the Milky Way galaxy, which is our galaxy, is now part of a Local Group, where about thirty
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