This picture shows the central region of the globular cluster M15 as imaged by the Wide Field/Planetary Camera of the Hubble Space Telescope. M15 is a tightly bound cluster of about a million stars contained within our own galaxy. At the center of the image, the density of stars is roughly a million times what it is in our own part of the galaxy. Analysis of this image shows that M15 is now recovering from an implosion in which the stars in the cluster center collapsed into a dense aggregate. This image has been processed to remove the effects of spherical aberration. At the distance of M15, the region shown is 2.26 light-years on a side.
Credits
Credit: NASA, ESA, and STScI| About The Object | |
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| Object Name | M15, NGC 7078 |
| R.A. Position | 21h 29m 58.38s |
| Dec. Position | 12° 10' 0.59" |
| About The Object | |
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| Object Name | A name or catalog number that astronomers use to identify an astronomical object. |
| Object Description | The type of astronomical object. |
| R.A. Position | Right ascension – analogous to longitude – is one component of an object's position. |
| Dec. Position | Declination – analogous to latitude – is one component of an object's position. |
| Constellation | One of 88 recognized regions of the celestial sphere in which the object appears. |
| Distance | The physical distance from Earth to the astronomical object. Distances within our solar system are usually measured in Astronomical Units (AU). Distances between stars are usually measured in light-years. Interstellar distances can also be measured in parsecs. |
| Dimensions | The physical size of the object or the apparent angle it subtends on the sky. |
| About The Data | |
| Data Description |
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| Instrument | The science instrument used to produce the data. |
| Exposure Dates | The date(s) that the telescope made its observations and the total exposure time. |
| Filters | The camera filters that were used in the science observations. |
| About The Image | |
| Image Credit | The primary individuals and institutions responsible for the content. |
| Publication Date | The date and time the release content became public. |
| Color Info | A brief description of the methods used to convert telescope data into the color image being presented. |
| Orientation | The rotation of the image on the sky with respect to the north pole of the celestial sphere. |
