Gemini Observatory | 21 Mar 2019
Using high-resolution adaptive optics imaging from the Gemini Observatory, astronomers have uncovered one of the oldest star clusters in the Milky Way Galaxy. The remarkably sharp image looks back into the early history of our Universe and sheds new insights on how our Galaxy formed.
Just as high-definition imaging is transforming home entertainment, it is also advancing the way astronomers study the Universe.
“Ultra-sharp adaptive optics images from the Gemini Observatory allowed us to determine the ages of some of the oldest stars in our Galaxy,” said Leandro Kerber of the Universidade de São Paulo and Universidade Estadual de Santa Cruz, Brazil. Kerber led a large international research team that published their results in the April 2019 issue of the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society.
Using advanced adaptive optics technology at the Gemini South telescope in Chile, the researchers zoomed in on a cluster of stars known as HP 1. “Removing our atmosphere’s distortions to starlight with adaptive optics reveals tremendous details in the objects we study,” added Kerber. “Because we captured these stars in such great detail, we were able to determine their advanced age and piece together a very compelling story.”
That story begins just as the Universe was reaching its one-billionth birthday. ...
A Deep View of a Fossil Relic in the Galactic Bulge: The Globular Cluster HP1 ~ L.O. Kerber et al
- Monthly Notices of the RAS 484(4):5530 (Apr 2019) DOI: 10.1093/mnras/stz003
- arXiv.org > astro-ph > arXiv:1901.03721 > 11 Jan 2019