This composite image shows the location of the globular star cluster Terzan 12 as seen by the Hubble Space Telescope.
[Top Frame]—A view of a section of our Milky Way in the direction of the constellation Sagittarius. Dense clouds of dust are etched across a whitish background of stars. The object at upper right is the Rho Ophiuchi cloud complex.
[Bottom-left Frame]—Photo of a small portion of the Milky Way which is only one-degree across — twice the angular diameter of the full Moon. The globular cluster is in the middle of the box at image center.
[Bottom-right Frame]—A Hubble Space Telescope image of the dense globular star cluster Terzan 12. Intervening dust scatters starlight to create multiple reddish hues. The brightest red stars in the photo are bloated, aging giants, many times larger than our Sun. They lie between Earth and the cluster. Only a few may actually be members of the cluster. The very brightest hot, blue stars are also along the line of sight and not inside the cluster, which only contains aging stars. The cluster is about 15,000 light-years from Earth.
Credits
Image
NASA, ESA, Stéphane Guisard (ESO), Roger Cohen (RU), Joseph DePasquale (STScI), DSS, ESA/Hubble
| About The Object | |
|---|---|
| Object Name | Terzan 12 |
| Object Description | Globular cluster |
| R.A. Position | 18:12:15.80 |
| Dec. Position | -22:44:31.00 |
| Constellation | Sagittarius |
| Distance | 15,000 light-years |
| About The Object | |
|---|---|
| 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 |
|
| 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. |
