Millions of Stars in Omega Centauri
Credit & Copyight: Loke Kun Tan (StarryScapes)
Pictured above is the largest ball of stars in our Galaxy. About 10 million stars orbit the center of this globular cluster - named Omega Centauri - as this giant globular cluster orbits our Galactic center. Recent evidence indicates that Omega Centauri is by far the most massive of the about 150 known globular clusters in the Milky Way. Omega Centauri, cataloged as NGC 5139, spans about 150 light years across, lies about 15,000 light years away, and can be seen without visual aide toward the constellation of Centaurus. The stars in globular clusters are generally older, redder and less massive than our Sun. Studying globular clusters tells us not only about the history of our Galaxy but also limits the age of the universe.

Wow....that's amazing

Now THAT's the place to look for star empires.

Perhaps the most famous object in Centaurus is Omega Centauri, a splendid globular cluster. Globular cluster are compact roughly spherical clusters of relatively old stars which circle our galaxy. Although observers in the northern hemisphere can see M13, a globular cluster in the constellation of Hercules, Omega Centauri appears larger and brighter.

With the naked eye, Omega appears as a misty patch in the sky, shining at magnitude 3.7, and looking a little like the nucleus of a dim comet but without the tail. Through a telescope it's seen to cover an area the size of the full Moon. Small sized telescopes will show a dazzling spectacle, a myriad of glimmering stars fused to form a slightly flattened disk. Larger telescopes (within a mirror 10 inches in diameter or greater) will resolve the edge of the disk into many thousands of stars spilling out beyond the telescope's field of view. The colours of some of the stars should become visible too, pinpoints of yellow-white light which has raced towards us over the vast distance of space.

Beautiful. Thanks again Wet1.

Oh, one of the joys of living in the Southern hemisphere!

Very nice, wet1.

(That's what I call "midnight blue." )

thx,

CB

I wonder if we monitored any SETI signal from this area. There bound to be some civilization there....

May be we need a giant mylar antenna far side of the moon to collect the signal....

Getting signals from anywhere would amazing enough, but a signal from Omega Cen would take 16,000 years to reach us... imagine a society able to transmit in such high power 14,000 years before the Roman Empire... what would the be like now, and what would they be like in 16,000 years when a reply from us would reach them?