47 Tucanae
This is a Hubble Space Telescope photo of the core of globular cluster 47 Tucanae, home to 1 million stars. Multiple photos of this region allowed astronomers to track the "behive swarm" motion of stars. Astronomers determined precise velocities for nearly 15,000 stars in this cluster.
Hubble's study of 47 Tucanae provided astronomers with the best observational evidence to date that globular clusters sort out stars according to their mass, governed by a gravitational billiard-ball game between stars. Heavier stars slow down and sink to the cluster's core, while lighter stars pick up speed and move across the cluster to its periphery.
For more information, visit: hubblesite.org/contents/news-releases/2006/news-2006-33.html
Credit: NASA, ESA and G. Meylan (École Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne)
47 Tucanae
This is a Hubble Space Telescope photo of the core of globular cluster 47 Tucanae, home to 1 million stars. Multiple photos of this region allowed astronomers to track the "behive swarm" motion of stars. Astronomers determined precise velocities for nearly 15,000 stars in this cluster.
Hubble's study of 47 Tucanae provided astronomers with the best observational evidence to date that globular clusters sort out stars according to their mass, governed by a gravitational billiard-ball game between stars. Heavier stars slow down and sink to the cluster's core, while lighter stars pick up speed and move across the cluster to its periphery.
For more information, visit: hubblesite.org/contents/news-releases/2006/news-2006-33.html
Credit: NASA, ESA and G. Meylan (École Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne)