Astronomy Picture of the Day - Messier 2

By Free Republic | Created at 2024-12-19 20:00:56 | Updated at 2025-01-01 01:16:46 1 week ago

Astronomy Picture of the Day - Messier 2
NASA ^ | 19 Dec, 2024 | Image Credit: ESA/Hubble & NASA, G. Piotto et al.

Posted on 12/19/2024 11:58:46 AM PST by MtnClimber

Explanation: After the Crab Nebula, this giant star cluster is the second entry in 18th century astronomer Charles Messier's famous list of things that are not comets. M2 is one of the largest globular star clusters now known to roam the halo of our Milky Way galaxy. Though Messier originally described it as a nebula without stars, this stunning Hubble image resolves stars across the cluster's central 40 light-years. Its population of stars numbers close to 150,000, concentrated within a total diameter of around 175 light-years. About 55,000 light-years distant toward the constellation Aquarius, this ancient denizen of the Milky Way, also known as NGC 7089, is 13 billion years old. An extended stellar debris stream, a signature of past gravitational tidal disruption, was recently found to be associated with Messier 2.

TOPICS: Astronomy; Astronomy Picture of the Day; Science
KEYWORDS: apod; nasa

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For more detail go to the link and click on the image for a high definition image. You can then move the magnifying glass cursor then click to zoom in and click again to zoom out. When zoomed in you can scan by moving the side bars on the bottom and right side of the image.

1 posted on 12/19/2024 11:58:46 AM PST by MtnClimber

To: MtnClimber

2 posted on 12/19/2024 11:59:07 AM PST by MtnClimber (For photos of scenery, wildlife and climbing, click on my screen name for my FR home page.)

To: 21stCenturion; 21twelve; 4everontheRight; A Navy Vet; A_perfect_lady; abb; AFB-XYZ; AFPhys; ...

Pinging the APOD list

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3 posted on 12/19/2024 12:00:05 PM PST by MtnClimber (For photos of scenery, wildlife and climbing, click on my screen name for my FR home page.)

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