A Story Of Forms of Light: Omega Centauri
Mapping the lifecycle of stars with light.
Human eyes have evolved to detect the rainbow of colors that make up visible light. Some objects, like stars and light bulbs, emit their own light. Other matter, like plants and animals, can be detected because they reflect visible light from other sources.
Visible light is only one form of light. There are other types of electromagnetic radiation that human eyes cannot see. Objects that do not give off their own visible light (and are therefore invisible to our eyes in the dark) can glow in other wavelengths, like infrared or ultraviolet. The entire range of light, from radio waves to gamma rays, is known as the electromagnetic spectrum.
Omega Centauri is among the biggest and most massive globular star clusters that orbit our Milky Way galaxy, and has been observed across the electromagnetic spectrum. The average distance between any two stars in the cluster’s crowded core is only about a third of a light-year, roughly 13 times closer than our sun’s nearest stellar neighbor, Proxima Centauri. Since its stars are all approximately the same distance from Earth, researchers have used Omega Centauri to plot the brightness of individual stars. The color indicates the temperature of the star. Hotter stars appear bluer and cooler stars appear redder. Astronomers compare the brightnesses and colors of individual stars to create what’s known as the Hertzsprung-Russell diagram.
Quick Facts: Omega Centauri
Also known as:
NGC 5139 and Caldwell 80
Distance from Earth:
16,000 light-years
Size:
Entire cluster is about 150 light-years across, approximately 6 light-years shown above
Type of object:
Globular star cluster
Location in the sky:
Centaurus Constellation
Did you know:
When ancient astronomer Ptolemy identified this object 2,000 years ago, he thought it was a single star, but it’s now known to contain nearly 10 million stars.
Credits: Omega Centauri
All images from the Hubble Space Telescope: NASA, ESA, and the Hubble SM4 ERO Team
Subject-matter expertise provided by Dr. Jay Anderson
Produced by the Space Telescope Science Institute’s Office of Public Outreach