Deep in the Heart of the Milky Way
In a paper which appears in today’s journal Nature, available online here thanks to the European Southern Observatory (ESO), astronomers announce a fascinating discovery about a cluster of stars called Terzan 5. This cluster cannot be seen by ordinary telescopes. It is located in the galactic bulge which is obscured from view in the visible portion of the spectrum. However, in the infrared portion of the electromagnetic spectrum, things look different as IR can penetrate further into the Milky Way’s bulge region, as it is not hampered as much by the cosmic dust. So what is so special about this cluster called Terzan 5? As ESO summarizes, “unlike all but a few exceptional globular clusters, [Terzan 5] does not harbour stars which are all born at the same time.” Now I always encourage my students to ask the question “how do they know that?” And as often is the case, we know it from the spectral data associated with the stars in the star cluster. If you don’t have the heart to read the actual Nature paper, check out the ESO press release here. As the lead author, Francesco Ferraro, from the University of Bologna, states, “our study opens a new window on yet another piece of our galactic past.”