SPACE — Omega Centauri is the largest globular star cluster in the Milky Way. It is so big that Omega Centauri contains around 10 million stars.
The giant globular cluster Omega Centauri has a diameter of about 150 light years. This size makes Omega Centauri 10 times larger than most globular clusters.
Despite all these stars, scientists released a study in 2018 saying that Omega Centauri may not support life. Because the stars are gathered very tightly inside Omega Centauri.
Reporting from EarthSky, the average distance between stars in the core of the Omega Centauri cluster is 0.1 light years. It is much closer than the Sun’s closest neighbor, Proxima Centauri, which is 4.25 light years away.
So scientists concluded that the stars in Omega Centauri would interact gravitationally with each other too often to host stable, habitable planets.
It’s not just Omega Centauri’s largest size that differentiates it from other globular clusters. Most globular star clusters generally contain stars of the same age and composition.
However, research on Omega Centauri revealed that this globular cluster has different populations of stars that formed at different time periods. In fact, it’s possible that Omega Centauri is something other than a globular cluster. Scientists say Omega Centauri could be the remains of a small galaxy nucleus that was absorbed by the Milky Way galaxy in the past.
Difference between open star clusters and globular star clusters
Omega Centauri’s round and symmetrical shape differentiates it from star clusters such as the Pleiades and Hyades, which are open star clusters.
Open star clusters are collections of tens to hundreds of young stars in the disk of the Milky Way galaxy. Open clusters are weakly bound by gravity, and tend to disperse after a few hundred million years.
In contrast, globular clusters orbit the Milky Way outside the galactic disk. Globular clusters hold tens of thousands to millions of stars. Bound tightly by gravity, globular clusters remain intact after 12 billion years.
Omega Centauri is the brightest globular star cluster. Omega Centauri can be seen from the southern United States. From the Southern Hemisphere, Omega Centauri appears much higher in the sky and is a stunning sight.
2023-10-17 05:07:00
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