How can you tell which star cluster is older?
By determining the mass of the main-sequence turnoff stars, we get the age of the cluster. The cluster age equals the main-sequence lifetime of the turnoff stars. This is one of the ways we have studied the age of the Universe and the formation history of the Galaxy.
What is a typical age for a globular cluster?
12.7 billion years
Which cluster is the Milky Way in?
Virgo Cluster
Where are globular clusters found in the Milky Way?
Globular star clusters are known to be located mostly in the great spherical halo of the Milky Way. Spiral galaxies like our Milky Way contain stars, gas and dust, mostly organized into a flat disk containing the spiral arms, but with the addition of a more rounded bulge and halo, centered on the galaxy’s center.
What is the relationship between globular cluster and the Milky Way?
Globular clusters are nearly spherical groups of about 10,000 to 1 million stars. A typical galaxy may contain up to a few hundred globular clusters; our galaxy, the Milky Way, has somewhere between 125 and 200 globular clusters orbiting the galactic center.
What would you not expect to find in a globular cluster?
Some other general observations of globular clusters, according to Pennsylvania State University: they are found in every direction in the sky, the density of stars in a globular cluster is much greater than the density of stars around the sun, and the clusters are not found to contain any gas.
Where do we expect to find globular clusters in our galaxy?
Globular clusters orbit in the halo of our galaxy, centered on the galaxy’s center and expanding above and below the galactic disk. Open star clusters tend to orbit within the disk. Globular star clusters contain hundreds of thousands of stars, and some – like Omega Centauri, shown above – contain millions of stars.
Where would you expect to find globular clusters quizlet?
In a spiral galaxy, globular clusters can be found in regions that are free of interstellar dust and can be seen at large distances. The globular clusters, molecular clouds, and atomic hydrogen can be found at almost distinctly he center of the galaxy.
How do astronomers know that globular clusters are very old?
How do astronomers know that globular clusters are very old? The turnoff point tells the astronomer the age of the star cluster. For an astronomer, what is the significance of the turnoff point in the Hertzsprung-Russell diagram of a star cluster? hundreds of thousands of members, all very old and generally metal-poor.