martes, septiembre 26, 2023
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El brillante cúmulo globular Messier 10

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Like many of the most famous objects in the sky, globular cluster Messier 10 was of little interest to its discoverer: Charles Messier, the 18th century French astronomer, catalogued over 100 galaxies and clusters, but was primarily interested in comets. Through the telescopes available at the time, comets, nebulae, globular clusters and galaxies appeared just as faint, diffuse blobs and could easily be confused for one another. Only by carefully observing their motion — or lack of it — were astronomers able to distinguish them: comets move slowly relative to the stars in the background, while other more distant astronomical objects do not move at all. Messier’s decision to catalogue all the objects that he could find and that were not comets, was a pragmatic solution which would have a huge impact on astronomy. His catalogue of just over 100 objects includes many of the most famous objects in the night sky. Messier 10, seen here in an image from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope, is one of them. Messier described it in the very first edition of his catalogue, which was published in 1774 and included the first 45 objects he identified. Messier 10 is a ball of stars that lies about 15 000 light-years from Earth, in the constellation of Ophiuchus (The Serpent Bearer). Approximately 80 light-years across, it should therefore appear about two thirds the size of the Moon in the night sky. However, its outer regions are extremely diffuse, and even the comparatively bright core is too dim to see with the naked eye. Hubble, which has no problems seeing faint objects, has observed the brightest part of the centre of the cluster in this image, a region which is about 13 light-years across. This image is made up of observations made in visible and infrared light using Hubble’s Advanced Camera for Surveys. The observations were carried out as part of a major Hubble survey of globular clusters in the Milky Way. A version of this image was entered into the Hubble’s H

Messier 10, también conocido como NGC 6254 o M10, es una agrupación de estrellas ubicada a 15.000 años luz de distancia en la constelación de Ophiuchus. Tiene un diámetro aproximado de 80 años luz, por lo tanto, debería verse en el cielo casi tan grande como la Luna (tamaño angular de 20’). Sin embargo, sus regiones exteriores son muy difusas, y aunque el núcleo de M10 es muy brillante, es demasiado tenue como para verse a simple vista.

Con una magnitud de +6,5, M10 es fácilmente visible a través de cualquier telescopio, lo que lo convierte en uno de los mejores cúmulos globulares en el cielo para realizar observaciones.

Messier 10 se está alejando de nosotros a una velocidad de 69 kilómetros por segundo. El cúmulo completa una órbita alrededor de la Vía Láctea cada 140 millones de años, periodo en el cual cruza el plano del disco galáctico cada 53 millones de años.

Crédito: NASA / ESA / Hubble

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