An international team of astronomers have created the most sensitive radio image ever of a globular cluster. The team imaged 47 Tucanae, an ancient ball of tightly-packed stars and is the second brightest globular cluster in the night sky. The team also documented a previously undetected radio signal emitting from 47 Tucanaeās center. The research was published January 16 in The Astrophysical Journal.
[Related: This glittery Hubble image shows how far weāve come in studying distant stars.]
Globular clusters are an ancient relic of the Early Universe. During this period of time just after the Big Bang, the universe was a āhot soup of particlesā or protons, neutrons, and electrons. When the universe began to cool down, the protons and neutrons began to combine into ionized atoms of hydrogen. Globular clusters allow todayās astronomers to learn more about this foundational period of the universe. They are very dense, and have thousands to millions of stars packed together in a sphere shape. 47 Tucanae can be seen without a telescope and was first cataloged in 1751.
Like light, radio waves coming from planets, stars, and globular clusters with changing magnetic fields travel through space. Radio telescopes can then intercept these signals. Astronomers can then convert the waves into pictures and create radio images. Using data collected by radio telescopes, scientists can learn about the objectsā structure, composition, and even motion. Radio telescopes have to be physically larger than optical telescopes that gather and magnify the data, according to NASA.Ā
āOur image is of 47 Tucanae, one of the most massive globular clusters in the galaxy. It has over a million stars and a very bright, very dense core,ā study co-author and astronomer Arash Bahramian said in a statement. Bahramian is affiliated with the International Centre for Radio Astronomy Research and Curtin University in Australia.
This new ultra-sensitive image…
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