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Credit & Copyright: NASA,
ESA,
Hubble Heritage Team
(STScI /
AURA)
Acknowledgment:
J. Mack (STScI) and
G. Piotto (U. Padova)
Explanation:
Globular star cluster 47 Tucanae is a jewel box of the southern sky.
Also known
as NGC 104, it roams
the halo of our Milky Way Galaxy along with over 150 other
globular star clusters.
The second brightest globular cluster (after
Omega Centauri)
as seen from planet Earth, 47 Tuc lies about 17,000 light-years away and
can be spotted naked-eye
near the
Small Magellanic Cloud
in the constellation of
the Toucan.
The dense cluster is made up of hundreds of thousands of
stars in a
volume
only about 120 light-years across.
Recent observations
have shown that
47 Tuc's
white dwarf stars are in the process of being
gravitationally
expelled to the outer parts of the cluster due to their relatively low mass.
Other colorful low mass stars including yellowish
red giant stars are easy to
pick out on the outskirts of the cluster in
this recently released sharp
telescopic portrait by the
Hubble Space Telescope.
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NASA Official: Jay Norris. Specific rights apply.
A service of: LHEA at NASA / GSFC
& Michigan Tech. U.
Based on Astronomy Picture
Of the Day
Publications with keywords: globular cluster - 47 Tuc
Publications with words: globular cluster - 47 Tuc
See also: