Module 10 Lab Questions – Globular Clusters

Module 10 Lab Questions – Globular Clusters

This discussion covers Question 6, “Which type of cluster is preferentially seen away from the Milky Way in the sky but distributed about its center?” My choice was “globular clusters.” A globular cluster is a star cluster containing close to one million stars. Globular clusters are dense, spherical collections of stars found in the halo of galaxies, including the Milky Way. They are widely scattered, but Shapley noticed that they were more common toward the constellations Sagittarius and Scorpius. (Seeds & Backman 2018). They are distributed in a roughly spherical manner around the center of the galaxy but are preferentially seen away from the galactic plane in the night sky.

Shapley was able to see the globular clusters at greater distances because they lie outside the Milky Way plane, which reduced the impact of interstellar dust, dimming their brightness. They are gravitationally bound and can orbit the galaxy’s center at a considerable distance. His examination of globular clusters revealed that they were not centrally located around the Sun but formed an extensive cloud with its center located in the distant Sagittarius direction. (Seeds & Backman 2018). Globular cluster ages seem to average about 11 billion years. Its stars are closer together compared to those of open clusters. The stars in globular clusters have a low abundance of elements beyond helium, resulting in relatively transparent gases. That means energy can flow outward more easily; because they contain few metals, they are hotter and smaller than stars with more metals.

Interesting remarks about the module include its focus on astronomical observational processes and topics that engage the student to understand the visual phenomena, distance, temperature, and mass of the Milky Way and other galaxies.

References

Seeds, M. A. & Backman, D. (2018). ASTRO 3: Introductory astronomy. Cengage Learning.

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Which type of cluster is preferentially seen away from the Milky Way in the sky but distributed about its center?  B

1. open galactic star cluster
2. globular clusters
3. both globular cluster and open galactic star clusters are preferentially away from the Milky Way.