This video takes you on a journey past the centre of the Milky Way and far out the other side to the globular cluster Messier 54. This cluster looks very similar to many others, but it has a secret. Messier 54 doesn’t belong to the Milky Way, but actually is part of a small satellite galaxy, the Sagittarius Dwarf Galaxy. The final close-up view comes from the VLT Survey Telescope at ESO’s Paranal Observatory in northern Chile. About the Object Name: M 54 Data: simbad.u-strasbg.fr/simbad/sim-id?Ident=M+54 Type: • Milky Way : Star : Grouping : Cluster : Globular Facility: VLT Survey Telescope Related releases This Star Cluster Is Not What It Seems VLT observations of Messier 54 show the lithium problem also applies outside our galaxy: eso.org/public/news/eso1428/ This new image from the VLT Survey Telescope at ESO’s Paranal Observatory in northern Chile shows a vast collection of stars, the globular cluster Messier 54. This cluster looks very similar to many others but it has a secret. Messier 54 doesn’t belong to the Milky Way, but is part of a small satellite galaxy, the Sagittarius Dwarf Galaxy. This unusual parentage has now allowed astronomers to use the Very Large Telescope (VLT) to test whether there are also unexpectedly low levels of the element lithium in stars outside the Milky Way. Release date: 10 September 2014 Credit: ESO/N. Risinger (skysurvey.org). Music: John Dyson
Posted on: Tue, 23 Sep 2014 23:27:42 +0000
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