Physical Size
A scroll-driven journey through the scale of the universe, from subatomic structures to the largest known cosmic systems.
Omega Centauri
Abell 1689
Globular cluster
Omega Centauri
A huge cluster of millions of stars, possibly the core of a former small galaxy.
Omega Centauri is the Milky Way’s biggest globular cluster and one of the few such swarms visible to the naked eye. Its stars do not all share the same age or chemistry, which is one reason many astronomers suspect it may be the stripped core of a small galaxy rather than an ordinary cluster.
- diameter
- 150 ly
- Age
- ~11.5 billion years
- Composition
- ~10 million stars
- Orbits
- Milky Way
- Imaged by
- La Silla Observatory · 2008
Image: ESO · CC BY 4.0 · Wikimedia Commons