New Type of Star Cluster Discovered |
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Written by spacetravel.org
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Thursday, 21 July 2005 22:34 |
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A new type of star cluster, orbiting the Andromeda Galaxy, has been found by Avon Huxor, Mike Irwin and Dr. Nial Tanvor of the University of Hertfordshire during a survey of the region. These clusters contain hundreds of thousands of stars, similar in number to those in the familiar globular clusters surrounding the Milky Way and many other galaxies. However, these clusters are hundreds of light-years across, much larger than globular clusters. Their stars are much further apart. Some scientists think they could be fragments of dwarf galaxies pulled apart after coming close to the much larger Andromeda Galaxy.
The survey that led to this discovery was made with CCD detectors mounted on telescopes in La Palma and Hawaii. Previous surveys used less sensitive photographic plates that could not detect the relatively faint clusters.
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