Press Release
Omega Centauri: Big, Bright and Beautiful
MOST MASSIVE GLOBULAR CLUSTER IN OUR GALAXY
27 May 1994
Far down in the southern sky, in the constellation of Centaurus, a diffuse spot of light can be perceived with the unaided eye. It may be unimpressive, but when seen through a telescope, it turns out to be a beautiful, dense cluster of innumerable stars [1]. Omega Centauri, as this object is called, is the brightest of its type in the sky. We refer to it as a "globular cluster", due to its symmetric form. It belongs to our Milky Way galaxy and astrophysical investigations have shown that it is located at a distance of about 16,500 light-years (1 light-year = 9,460,000,000,000 km). Nobody knows for sure how many individual stars it contains, but recent estimates run into the millions. Most of these stars are more than 10,000 million years old and it is generally agreed that Omega Centauri has a similar age. Measurements of its motion indicate that Omega Centauri plows through the Milky Way in an elongated orbit. It is not easy to understand how it has managed to keep its stars together during such an extended period.
MEASURING STELLAR VELOCITIES IN OMEGA CENTAURI
A group of astronomers [2] have recently carried through a major investigation of Omega Centauri. After many nights of observations at the ESO La Silla observatory, they now conclude that not only is this globular cluster the brightest, it is indeed by far the most massive known in the Milky Way.
The very time-consuming observations were made during numerous observing sessions over a period of no less than 13 years (1981-1993), with the photoelectric spectrometer CORAVEL mounted on the 1.5-m Danish telescope at La Silla. The CORAVEL instrument (COrelation RAdial VELocities) was built in a joint effort between the Geneva (Switzerland) and Marseilles (France) observatories. It functions according to the cross-correlation technique, by means of which the spectrum of the observed star is compared with a "standard stellar spectrum" [3].
HOW HEAVY IS OMEGA CENTAURI?
In the present study, a total of 1701 measurements were made of 483 giant and sub-giant stars in Omega Centauri, located between 10 arcsec and 1350 arcsec from its centre. The mean velocities could be determined for 469 of them and the astronomers were then able to estimate the spread of stellar velocities at various locations in the cluster. The technical term for this quantity is "velocity dispersion". It increases with the strength of the gravitational field in which the stars move, and is therefore an indicator of the total mass of the entire cluster.
The new observations show that the velocity dispersion is about 22 km/sec at the centre of Omega Centauri. The dispersion decreases outwards, but the central value is the largest ever measured in any globular cluster. When taken together with accurate measurements of the distribution of the stars in the cluster, this leads to an estimate of the total mass of Omega Centauri at about 5 million solar masses (1 solar mass = 2 10^30 kg). This is to be compared with the masses of other globular clusters in our Galaxy which in most cases have been found to be of the order of 100,000 solar masses only.
In fact, because of its great size and mass, Omega Centauri now appears to be an object that is intermediate between the ordinary globular clusters in the Milky Way and the much larger dwarf spheroidal galaxies which move around our galaxy. This great mass obviously contributes to its long-term stability.
1 This Press Release is accompanied by a photograph, eso9411a.
2 The group consists of Georges Meylan (ESO), Michel Mayor and Antoine Duquennoy (Geneva Observatory, Switzerland) and Pierre Dubath (formerly ESO, now Lick Observatory, Santa Cruz, California). They are reporting their new results today at the semi-annual meeting of the American Astronomical Society (AAS) in Minneapolis, Minnesota, U.S.A.
3 The light from the star in Omega Centauri is dispersed into a spectrum. It then passes through a metal mask with holes that correspond to about 1500 absorption lines, measured in the spectrum of the bright star Arcturus. If the velocity of the star would be exactly the same as that of Arcturus, the (dark) absorption lines in the star's spectrum would fall exactly on the holes in the mask and a minimum of light would pass through; if the velocity is different, a small shift of the position of the mask will restore this situation. The size of this shift accurately indicates the Doppler shift of the star and therefore directly measures its velocity. Despite the faintness of the stars in Omega Centauri, CORAVEL is able to measure their velocities with a typical uncertainty of only 0.7 km/sec.
More information
Technical information: 45 min exposure by Birger Niss (Copenhagen Observatory) on Kodak IIIa-J emulsion,
behind a GG385 filtre (passband 3900 - 5400 A). Scale on photo: 43 arcsec/cm; field: 12.5 x 18.4 arcmin.
About the Release
| Release No.: | eso9411 |
| Legacy ID: | PR 11/94 |
| Name: | Omega Centauri |
| Type: | Milky Way : Star : Grouping : Cluster : Globular |
| Facility: | Danish 1.54-metre telescope |
| Instruments: | CORAVEL |
Images
Our use of Cookies
We use cookies that are essential for accessing our websites and using our services. We also use cookies to analyse, measure and improve our websites’ performance, to enable content sharing via social media and to display media content hosted on third-party platforms.
ESO Cookies Policy
The European Organisation for Astronomical Research in the Southern Hemisphere (ESO) is the pre-eminent intergovernmental science and technology organisation in astronomy. It carries out an ambitious programme focused on the design, construction and operation of powerful ground-based observing facilities for astronomy.
This Cookies Policy is intended to provide clarity by outlining the cookies used on the ESO public websites, their functions, the options you have for controlling them, and the ways you can contact us for additional details.
What are cookies?
Cookies are small pieces of data stored on your device by websites you visit. They serve various purposes, such as remembering login credentials and preferences and enhance your browsing experience.
Categories of cookies we use
Essential cookies (always active): These cookies are strictly necessary for the proper functioning of our website. Without these cookies, the website cannot operate correctly, and certain services, such as logging in or accessing secure areas, may not be available; because they are essential for the website’s operation, they cannot be disabled.
Functional Cookies: These cookies enhance your browsing experience by enabling additional features and personalization, such as remembering your preferences and settings. While not strictly necessary for the website to function, they improve usability and convenience; these cookies are only placed if you provide your consent.
Analytics cookies: These cookies collect information about how visitors interact with our website, such as which pages are visited most often and how users navigate the site. This data helps us improve website performance, optimize content, and enhance the user experience; these cookies are only placed if you provide your consent. We use the following analytics cookies.
Matomo Cookies:
This website uses Matomo (formerly Piwik), an open source software which enables the statistical analysis of website visits. Matomo uses cookies (text files) which are saved on your computer and which allow us to analyze how you use our website. The website user information generated by the cookies will only be saved on the servers of our IT Department. We use this information to analyze www.eso.org visits and to prepare reports on website activities. These data will not be disclosed to third parties.
On behalf of ESO, Matomo will use this information for the purpose of evaluating your use of the website, compiling reports on website activity and providing other services relating to website activity and internet usage.
Matomo cookies settings:
Additional Third-party cookies on ESO websites: some of our pages display content from external providers, e.g. YouTube.
Such third-party services are outside of ESO control and may, at any time, change their terms of service, use of cookies, etc.
YouTube: Some videos on the ESO website are embedded from ESO’s official YouTube channel. We have enabled YouTube’s privacy-enhanced mode, meaning that no cookies are set unless the user actively clicks on the video to play it. Additionally, in this mode, YouTube does not store any personally identifiable cookie data for embedded video playbacks. For more details, please refer to YouTube’s embedding videos information page.
Cookies can also be classified based on the following elements.
Regarding the domain, there are:
- First-party cookies, set by the website you are currently visiting. They are stored by the same domain that you are browsing and are used to enhance your experience on that site;
- Third-party cookies, set by a domain other than the one you are currently visiting.
As for their duration, cookies can be:
- Browser-session cookies, which are deleted when the user closes the browser;
- Stored cookies, which stay on the user's device for a predetermined period of time.
How to manage cookies
Cookie settings: You can modify your cookie choices for the ESO webpages at any time by clicking on the link Cookie settings at the bottom of any page.
In your browser: If you wish to delete cookies or instruct your browser to delete or block cookies by default, please visit the help pages of your browser:
Please be aware that if you delete or decline cookies, certain functionalities of our website may be not be available and your browsing experience may be affected.
You can set most browsers to prevent any cookies being placed on your device, but you may then have to manually adjust some preferences every time you visit a site/page. And some services and functionalities may not work properly at all (e.g. profile logging-in, shop check out).
Updates to the ESO Cookies Policy
The ESO Cookies Policy may be subject to future updates, which will be made available on this page.
Additional information
For any queries related to cookies, please contact: pdprATesoDOTorg.
As ESO public webpages are managed by our Department of Communication, your questions will be dealt with the support of the said Department.