Astronomy Picture of the Day - M72 Cluster

Posted on | May 12, 2010 | No Comments |

From the Latest News section of the May 12, 2010 Useful Info Nation homepage:

Astronomy Picture of the Day

Today's picture is a view of the M72 Globular Cluster of Stars that resides about 50,000 light years away. It was taken by the Hubble Space Telescope.

" Globular clusters once ruled the Milky Way. Back in the old days, back when our Galaxy first formed, perhaps thousands of globular clusters roamed our Galaxy. Today, there are less than 200 left. Many globular clusters were destroyed over the eons by repeated fateful encounters with each other or the Galactic center. Surviving relics are older than any Earth fossil, older than any other structures in our Galaxy, and limit the universe itself in raw age. There are few, if any, young globular clusters in our Milky Way Galaxy because conditions are not ripe for more to form."

Check out the image here: Astronomy Picture of the Day.