The young star cluster NGC 3603 is one of the most compact objects in the Milky Way and is also an ideal place to test theories about the formation of clusters
With a mass of more than 10,000 suns over a volume of about 3 light years, the young star cluster NGC 3603 is one of the most compact objects in the Milky Way and is also an ideal place to test theories about the formation of clusters.
A team of astronomers from the Max Planck Institute and the University of Cologne, led by Wolfgang Brandner, followed the movement of the many stars in the cluster. Such research may reveal whether the cluster is in the process of separation or stabilization.
The young cluster is located about 20,000 light-years from the Sun, which makes the measurements unusually difficult, because it forces to compare the images taken today with images taken years or even decades ago. The telescope and camera used must give sharp images and be stable for long periods of time.
Brandner and his colleagues realized that the Hubble Space Telescope was the most ideal for the job. They found good archival material on the cluster NGC 3603 from July 1997, and then made their own observations using the exact same camera and set of filters used in the original observations. The analysis of the results of the study took two years in which they made assessments of the movement of the stars in the images.
Boyke Rockau, a researcher who performed the data analysis in the study as part of his doctoral thesis, says: "Our measurements have an accuracy of 27 millionths of an arcsion (an angle of 1/3600 degrees) per year. This small angle is equivalent to calculating the thickness of a human hair from a distance of 800 kilometers."
In this way, they could measure with great precision the velocity of more than 800 stars. About 50 of these were identified as unrelated stars, but more than 700 cluster stars of varying masses and surface temperatures remained. The results for the movement of the cluster's stars were surprising: this massive cluster still hasn't settled down. Instead, the speed of the stars is not directly proportional to their masses, reflecting the initial conditions of the cluster's formation, about a million years ago.
Stars are born when a massive cloud of gas and dust collapses. In cases like the cluster NGC 3603, the cloud is massive and unusually small, the process is mainly fast and intense. Most of the matter in the cloud is concentrated in young and hot stars and the cluster continues to move according to the conditions of the initial gravitational attraction. In the long run, a massive and small star cluster of this type may lead to the formation of huge stars called globular clusters, which are close star clusters that stay together for millions of years.
Wolfgang Brandner says "this is the first time we can measure with great precision the motion of stars in a young and compact star cluster". Another member of the team, Andrea Stolt adds, "This is key information for astronomers in understanding the question of how clusters are formed, and how they develop."
15 תגובות
To Max 14, humans exist to ask questions and wonder why there are so many stars. On the other hand, the stars seem unnecessary.
Gideon 13 has many stars and galaxies because there are many humans, and who needs them, humans.
Can someone tell me, why there are so many stars and galaxies, who needs them.
Correction: there were very long periods *where* there was no development
I probably didn't make myself clear. The examples given by Gould are not of opponents of the theory of evolution for religious reasons, but of legitimate scientists who studied evolution when the popular opinion was that development was continuous and unidirectional, and when they discovered findings that did not show development, they simply treated them as "not a story", and thought that "there is no Here is evidence of development", when the truth is that "here is evidence of non-development".
The fact that most evolutionary lineages had very long periods was not an evolutionary development and the species remained as it is today is an accepted scientific fact, and is not related to a general opposition to the theory of evolution, for religious or other reasons.
Yes, you are right that in this sense religious and political considerations come into play, as in the example of the theory of evolution. And I'll give you another example, Galileo and the Church. And if we go to the modern world, research proposals and budgets are passed, and it is well known that, to our great regret, the government budgets for some isolated settlement and not so much the collapsing universities.
What I meant to say is something else entirely. I meant to say that it doesn't matter whether a German scientist makes a discovery or a scientist of another origin. Political considerations enter into funding and opposition to science. But when the discovery is made, it is not in itself a "German discovery" or an "American discovery". The star cluster or the Hubble telescope does not know the difference between an American scientist and a German scientist. It is only the church that knows how to distinguish between Darwin and the priest who opposes the theory of evolution.
Legali Weinstein (8).
The statement that "in science it doesn't matter who does the research, science is international", is a romantic statement, but nothing more than wishful thinking. I suggest you read one of Steven J. Gould's books and see how he describes cases where scientists' decision to publish or shelve the results of their research stems directly from the cultural environment in which they live.
It's not something done out of cheating for its own sake, so you can argue that these are exceptions that prove the rule. It's a thing that happens anyway. He cites as an example the abundance of information that showed that for long periods in many evolutionary lineages, evolution was frozen in its tracks and no development took place for a long time, but the scientists who discovered this did not imagine that in their footsteps a discovery worthy of publication had arisen. Only when the atmosphere of evolution research changed were these discoveries also considered something positive and publications began to flow.
So that's it, science does depend on culture, time and environment, and it is definitely important who does the research.
In science it doesn't matter who does the research. Science is international, objective and devoid of political opinions or emotions. The star cluster, for that matter, or the Hubble telescope... does not distinguish between right and left, Israelis and Germans, haters and lovers, men and women. There are findings, there are rules according to which they are analyzed, there are laws of physics that are accepted by us today (and probably in a few years they will change a little), and according to these the findings are received. In literature or art you can introduce emotions and you can analyze one work according to two opposing theories and two different views and there is a lot of subjectivity because literature itself is loaded. At the beginning of the twentieth century, the Germans themselves treated the theory of relativity as a Jewish science. But there is no such thing as Jewish science. There is only science.
And so what is important is that on the occasion of Hubble's birthday they shared high-resolution photographs from the years of Hubble's activity and with the help of these photographs - which are not new - the 20-year-old Hubble Space Telescope makes discoveries.
She meant that seeing and hearing them makes you sick, and it's hard to do research when you have to run to the bathroom every five minutes.
A piece of German.
It must be difficult to do research with them because they are strict and strict... if that's what you meant
Nice, now I imagine the mourner in space with a bouquet of flowers on his head~
gai kaken oifen yam hitler
Hebrew is spoken here.
On the contrary. I did research with the Germans from the Max Planck Institute for three years and I have a trauma...
As a matter of fact. The Hubble telescope celebrated its birthday two months ago. Hubble celebrated his 20th birthday and both the European and American Space Agency and the Space Telescope Institute gave him a birthday present... 🙂 - They shared a limited number of very high resolution prints of images received by Hubble. They gave the pictures to several centers and observatories in Europe. And Deutschland was probably among the centers that received the photographs...
Gali I see you like the language so here is the link to the song
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NXqEMuXGK08
Yael looks like Snow White =)
fur
kommt die Sonne
How nice that the Germans are enthusiastic 🙂
Dieses Kosmologische Standard-modell ist sowohl vereinbar mit der brightest Stern
Sie ist der hellste Stern von Allen