Globular star clusters as a research area focuses on dense, gravitationally bound stellar systems that orbit galactic halos and serve as laboratories for studying stellar dynamics, stellar evolution, and galactic formation and assembly. Research investigates their internal kinematics, mass functions, multiple stellar populations, chemical abundance patterns, and dynamical processes such as core collapse, mass segregation, and tidal stripping. Globular clusters are also key to constraining ages of galaxies, tracing dark matter distributions, and testing N-body simulations, stellar population synthesis models, and theories of star formation under extreme density and low-metallicity conditions.
Stellar streams are trails of stars that astronomers can study to solve mysteries about the history of our Milky Way galaxy and, potentially, the dark matter that helps shape the cosmos despite eluding direct observation. ...
Astronomy
Mar 23, 2026
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Using data from the Magellan Clay telescope and the Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope (CFHT), astronomers have investigated a galactic globular cluster known as NGC 5824. Results of the new study, available in a paper published ...
In the vast tapestry of the universe, most galaxies shine brightly across cosmic time and space. Yet a rare class of galaxies remains nearly invisible—low-surface-brightness galaxies dominated by dark matter and containing ...
Astronomy
Feb 18, 2026
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Using the Very Large Telescope (VLT), astronomers have discovered a compact binary system consisting of two white dwarfs in the center of a nearby globular cluster designated NGC 6397. The finding was presented in a paper ...
Astronomers from the National Astronomical Observatory of Japan (NAOJ) and elsewhere have used the Subaru Telescope to perform deep imaging observations of a distant globular cluster known as NGC 5466. The observational campaign ...
Some stars appear to defy time itself. Nestled within ancient star clusters, they shine bluer and brighter than their neighbors, looking far younger than their true age. Known as blue straggler stars, these stellar oddities ...
Astronomy
Jan 22, 2026
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Using the Anglo-Australian Telescope (AAT), astronomers have observed a nearby galactic globular cluster known as NGC 6569. Results of the observational campaign, published December 22 on the arXiv preprint server, indicate ...
Omega Centauri dominates the southern sky as the Milky Way's largest and brightest globular cluster, a dense sphere containing roughly 10 million stars. Earlier this year, astronomers found evidence that an intermediate mass ...
Astronomy
Dec 15, 2025
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An international team led by ICREA researcher Mark Gieles, from the Institute of Cosmos Sciences of the University of Barcelona (ICCUB) and the Institute of Space Studies of Catalonia (IEEC), has developed a model that reveals ...
Astronomy
Nov 4, 2025
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Using ESA's Gaia satellite, astronomers have detected 87 stellar streams associated with globular clusters (GCs) in our Milky Way galaxy. The discovery, which doubles the number of known GC stellar streams, was detailed in ...
