Omega Centauri

Omega Centauri is an awe-striking deepsky object. It is the largest known globular cluster in the Milky Way with a diameter of roughly 150 light-years. In the cities, it appears to be a dim unassuming point of light; but in a dark rural area, its true nature begins to emerge - a gigantic globe almost as large as the full moon!

The cluster had about 10 million stars bound together by mutual gravity. The light they emit travelled 17,090 years in space to reach us.

Long ago, Omega Centauri used to be a small galaxy. It ran into a bigger galaxy and most of its parts got eaten (Astronomers call it ‘Galactic Cannibalism’). The remaining of that small galaxy became the globular cluster known as Omega Centauri.

Wondering which galaxy committed the terrible crime? Well, that was our own Milky Way Galaxy! Our galaxy robbed many stars from that small galaxy, and many of those stars became our close neighbours. You’ve probably seen one without realising it.

(The data was acquired from Telescopelive, which I processed using pixinsight and photoshop).