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.
Astronomers from Swinburne University in Australia and elsewhere have employed the Keck II telescope to investigate the globular cluster system of an ultra-diffuse galaxy designated NGC5846_UDG1. Results of the observations, ...
Black holes come in a range of sizes. Stellar mass black holes form from the collapse of massive stars, typically weighing between 5 and 100 times the mass of our sun, and are scattered throughout galaxies. At the other extreme ...
Astronomy
Apr 9, 2025
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An international team of astronomers reports the detection of the first pulsar by the Globular Clusters GMRT Pulsar Search (GCGPS) survey. The pulsar, designated PSR J1617−2258A, was found in the globular cluster NGC 6093. ...
Using the Hubble Space Telescope (HST), astronomers from the University of California Santa Cruz (UCSC) and elsewhere have observed an ultra-diffuse galaxy known as FCC 224. Results of the observational campaign, published ...
Using the Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory (CTIO), an international team of astronomers have performed deep optical observations of a dwarf galaxy known as NGC 300. As a result, they detected a stellar stream, shells ...
Using the VLT Survey Telescope (VST), astronomers from Italy and Germany have observed a group of galaxies designated NGC 5018. Results of the observational campaign, published Dec. 23 on the pre-print server arXiv, yield ...
Astronomers have employed the Hubble Space Telescope (HST) to observe an ultra-diffuse galaxy known as VCC 615. Results of the observational campaign, presented in a paper posted Dec. 2 to the preprint server arXiv, yield ...
Could a decades-long debate about the mysterious movements of stars in Omega Centauri, the largest star cluster in the Milky Way, finally be resolved?
Astronomy
Dec 9, 2024
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Using the Gemini-South telescope, astronomers have performed high-resolution near-infrared spectroscopy of stars in a Galactic globular cluster known as Gran 5. They found that this cluster harbors two stellar populations ...
A study published in Astronomy & Astrophysics marks a significant milestone in our understanding of the formation and dynamical evolution of multiple stellar populations in globular clusters (spherical and very compact stellar ...
Astronomy
Nov 5, 2024
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