Quintuplet star clusters
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| Infrared false color image of the quintuplet star cluster of the HST / NICMOS | |
| AladinLite | |
| Constellation | Sagittarius |
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Position equinox : J2000.0 |
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| Right ascension | 17 h 46 m 14 s |
| declination | -28 ° 49 ′ 48 ″ |
| Appearance
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| Angular expansion | approx. 25 " |
| Number of stars | about 1000 |
| Physical data
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| Affiliation | Milky Way , central area |
| distance | approx. 25,000 ly |
| history | |
| Catalog names | |
| IRAS 17430-2848 • G000.16-00.06 | |
The quintuplet star cluster is, along with the Arches star cluster, one of the densest known star clusters in the Milky Way . It is located about 25,000 light years away near the center of our galaxy in the constellation Sagittarius .
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 is about four million years old and has a total mass of about 10,000 solar masses. The brightest stars in the cluster are extremely massive and bright hypergiants , like QPM-241 (aka WR 102ea) and the Pistol Star . Some of them are double stars that are about to explode in the form of a supernova . The pistol star is one of the brightest known stars with a luminosity about six million times that of the sun. QPM-241 is a Wolf-Rayet star with a luminosity of around 4.5 million times that of the sun.
Web links
- IRAS 17430-2848 at SIMBAD
- RAFGL 2004 , at SIMBAD
- The Galactic Center in Infrared - Astronomy Picture of the Day January 7, 2009.
Sources and individual references
- ↑ Hubble site: Hubble Spies Giant Star Clusters Near Galactic Center
- ↑ Star Clusters ( Memento from April 27, 2013 in the Internet Archive )