Clusters deceptive serenity hides violent past

Esahubble_potw1113a_1024

esahubble_potw1113a March 28th, 2011

Credit: ESA/Hubble & NASA 

The high concentration of stars within globular clusters, like Messier 12, shown here in an image from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope, makes them beautiful photographic targets. But the cramped living quarters in these clusters also makes them home to exotic binary star systems where two stars are locked in tight orbits around each other and matter from one is gobbled up by its companion, releasing X-rays. It is thought that such X-ray binaries form from very close encounters between stars in crowded regions, such as globular clusters, and even though Messier 12 is fairly diffuse by globular cluster standards, such X-ray sources have been spotted there. Astronomers have also discovered that Messier 12 is home to far fewer low-mass stars than was previously expected (eso0604). In a recent study, astronomers used the European Southern Observatorys Very Large Telescope at Cerro Paranal, Chile, to measure the brightness and colours of more than 16 000 of the globulars 200 000 stars. They speculate that nearly one million low-mass stars have been ripped away from Messier 12 as the globular has passed through the densest regions of the Milky Way during its orbit around the galactic centre. It seems that the serenity of this view of Messier 12 is misleading and the object has had a violent and disturbed past. Messier 12 lies about 23 000 light-years away in the constellation of Ophiuchus (The Serpent Bearer). This image was taken using the Wide Field Channel of Hubbles Advanced Camera for Surveys. The colour image was created from exposures through a blue filter (F435W, coloured blue), a red filter (F625W, coloured green) and a filter that passes near-infrared light (F814W coloured red). The total exposure times were 1360 s, 200 s and 364 s, respectively. The field of view is about 3.2 x 3.1 arcminutes .

Provider: Hubble Space Telescope | ESA

Image Source: https://www.spacetelescope.org/images/potw1113a/

Curator: ESA/Hubble, Garching bei München, Germany

Image Use Policy: Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License

Image Details

Image Type
Observation
Object Name
Messier 12
Subject - Milky Way
Star > Grouping > Cluster > Globular
Esahubble_potw1113a_128
 

Position Details

Position (ICRS)
RA = 16h 47m 14.3s
DEC = -1° 56’ 39.0”
Orientation
North is 27.1° CCW
Field of View
3.3 x 3.1 arcminutes
Constellation
Ophiuchus

Color Mapping

  Telescope Spectral Band Wavelength
Red Hubble (ACS) Infrared (I) 814.0 nm
Green Hubble (ACS) Optical (R) 625.0 nm
Blue Hubble (ACS) Optical (B) 435.0 nm
Spectrum_base
Red
Green
Blue
Esahubble_potw1113a_1280
×
ID
potw1113a
Subject Category
B.3.6.4.2  
Subject Name
Messier 12
Credits
ESA/Hubble & NASA 
Release Date
2011-03-28T10:00:00
Lightyears
Redshift
Reference Url
https://www.spacetelescope.org/images/potw1113a/
Type
Observation
Image Quality
Distance Notes
Facility
Hubble Space Telescope, Hubble Space Telescope, Hubble Space Telescope
Instrument
ACS, ACS, ACS
Color Assignment
Red, Green, Blue
Band
Infrared, Optical, Optical
Bandpass
I, R, B
Central Wavelength
814, 625, 435
Start Time
Integration Time
364, 200, 1360
Dataset ID
Notes
Coordinate Frame
ICRS
Equinox
J2000
Reference Value
251.809748368, -1.94416659746
Reference Dimension
3899.0, 3708.0
Reference Pixel
1949.0, 1854.0
Scale
-1.39201119999e-05, 1.39201119999e-05
Rotation
27.0799999999999
Coordinate System Projection:
TAN
Quality
Full
FITS Header
Notes
Creator (Curator)
ESA/Hubble
URL
http://www.spacetelescope.org/
Name
Email
Telephone
Address
Karl-Schwarzschild-Strasse 2
City
Garching bei München
State/Province
Postal Code
D-85748
Country
Germany
Rights
Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License
Publisher
ESA/Hubble
Publisher ID
esahubble
Resource ID
potw1113a
Metadata Date
2011-02-18T14:39:19+01:00
Metadata Version
1.1
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Detailed color mapping information coming soon...

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There is no distance meta data in this image.

 

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