Arches star cluster
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| Infrared false color image of the Arches star cluster | |
| AladinLite | |
| Constellation | Sagittarius |
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Position equinox : J2000.0 |
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| Right ascension | 17 h 45 m 50.5 s |
| declination | -28 ° 49 ′ 28 ″ |
| Appearance
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| Number of stars | 15,000 |
| Physical data
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| Affiliation | Milky Way , central area |
| distance | 25,000 ly |
| history | |
| Catalog names | |
The Arches star cluster is the densest known star cluster in the Milky Way and is located about 100 light years away from the center of our galaxy in the constellation Sagittarius and thus from its supermassive black hole .
Due to the extremely strong optical extinction by dust in this region, the star cluster is invisible in the visual range and only recognizable in the X-ray , infrared and radio frequency range . The star cluster itself is less than 2.5 million years old. Its most massive stars have about 120 times the mass of the sun, the smallest are about 0.08 solar masses. The radius of the star cluster is about 1.5 light years, which contains about 15,000 young, very hot stars. Many of them are much larger and more massive than our sun and, due to their extreme brightness and energy turnover, only live a few million years on their hydrogen supply. One consequence of this is the high proportion of heavy elements in the cluster that was created by earlier generations of stars. The star cluster also contains hot gas that flows outward and is produced by collision between the stars' massive and very fast solar wind .
Web links
- astronews: Picture of the day May 26, 2015
- Chandra: Arches Cluster: Star Factory Near Galactic Center Bathed In High-Energy X-Rays
Individual evidence
- ↑ NAME ARCHES CLUSTER - Cluster of Stars. In: SIMBAD. Center de Données astronomiques de Strasbourg, accessed on July 19, 2009 .
- ↑ Wissenschaft-aktuell: surprisingly normal: star clusters in the center of the Milky Way
- ↑ CHANDRA: Young stars "bathe" in hot gas