Clear view of globular cluster's crowded core. (Sharpening a Heavenly Image).Using innovative optics to take the twinkle out of starlight, a telescope in Hawaii has recorded the sharpest-ever infrared images of the globular cluster globular cluster: see star cluster. globular cluster Any large group of old, Population II (see Populations I and II) stars closely packed in a symmetrical, somewhat spherical form. About 150 have been identified in the Milky Way Galaxy. M-13, a crowded grouping of Milky Way Milky Way, the galaxy of which the sun and solar system are a part, seen as a broad band of light arching across the night sky from horizon to horizon; if not blocked by the horizon, it would be seen as a circle around the entire sky. stars. The resolution is comparable to discerning the separation between car headlights on the Golden Gate Bridge Golden Gate Bridge, across the Golden Gate from San Francisco to Marin Co., W Calif.; built 1933–37. Its overall length is 9,266 ft (2,824 m); its main span across the strait, 4,200 ft (1,280 m), is one of the longest bridges in the world. Joseph B. while standing 3,850 kilometers away in Hawaii. Researchers presented the images last week at a meeting of the Canadian Astronomical Society The Canadian Astronomical Society is a Canadian society of professional astronomers. External links
Like other so-called adaptive-optics systems, the device installed on the Gemini North Telescope atop Hawaii's Mauna Kea reduces blurriness by using a flexible mirror whose computer-controlled shape changes 1,000 times per second to compensate for Earth's turbulent atmosphere. Compared with other systems, the Gemini device corrects for turbulence higher in the atmosphere, where most of it occurs, and thus sharpens images over a slightly wider region of sky, notes project scientist Glen Herriot of the National Research Council of Canada The National Research Council Canada (NRC) is Canada's leading organization for scientific research and development. History NRC was established in 1916, mainly to advise the government. Then, in the early 1930s, laboratories were built in Ottawa. in Victoria, British Columbia. Gemini imaged the center of M-13 at several infrared wavelengths, which will enable astronomers to determine the type, mass, and age of individual stars, says Tim Davidge of the National Research Council. |
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