{"id":611303,"date":"2026-09-25T11:06:11","date_gmt":"2026-09-25T11:06:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/611303\/"},"modified":"2026-09-25T11:06:11","modified_gmt":"2026-09-25T11:06:11","slug":"apod-2026-september-25-globular-star-cluster-omega-centauri","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/611303\/","title":{"rendered":"APOD: 2026 September 25 \u2013 Globular Star Cluster Omega Centauri"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"p-md margin-0 media-detail-hero__description\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tExplanation: Globular star cluster <a href=\"https:\/\/earthsky.org\/clusters-nebulae-galaxies\/omega-centauri-milky-ways-prize-star-cluster\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Omega Centauri<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/apod.nasa.gov\/apod\/fap\/ap080906.html\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">packs<\/a> about 10 million stars much older than the Sun into a volume some 150 light-years in diameter. Also known as NGC 5139, at a distance of 15,000 light-years it&#8217;s the largest and brightest of 200 or so known <a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Globular_clusters\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">globular clusters<\/a> that roam the halo of our Milky Way galaxy. Though most star clusters consist of stars with the same age and composition, the enigmatic Omega Cen exhibits the presence of <a href=\"https:\/\/ui.adsabs.harvard.edu\/abs\/2021A%26A...653L...8L\/abstract\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">different<\/a> stellar populations with a spread of ages and chemical abundances. In fact, <a href=\"https:\/\/esahubble.org\/news\/heic0809\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Omega Cen may be<\/a> the <a href=\"https:\/\/ui.adsabs.harvard.edu\/abs\/2019NatAs...3..667I\/abstract\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">remnant<\/a> core of a small galaxy merging with the Milky Way. With a <a href=\"https:\/\/apod.nasa.gov\/apod\/fap\/ap151224.html\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">yellowish hue<\/a>, Omega Centauri&#8217;s red giant stars are easy to pick out in this sharp telescopic view. A two-decade-long exploration of the dense star cluster with the Hubble Space Telescope has revealed evidence for a massive black hole near the <a href=\"https:\/\/science.nasa.gov\/missions\/hubble\/nasas-hubble-finds-strong-evidence-for-intermediate-mass-black-hole-in-omega-centauri\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">center of Omega Centauri<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>APOD&#8217;s email for image submissions has changed. Please see: <a href=\"https:\/\/apod.nasa.gov\/apod\/lib\/apsubmit2015.html\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">APOD Submissions<\/a>.<br \/>APOD&#8217;s main NASA site is <a href=\"https:\/\/asterisk.apod.com\/viewtopic.php?t=45023\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">moving<\/a>: From <a href=\"https:\/\/apod.nasa.gov\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">apod.nasa.gov<\/a> to <a href=\"https:\/\/science.nasa.gov\/apod\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">science.nasa.gov\/apod<\/a><br \/>Tomorrow&#8217;s picture: <a href=\"https:\/\/apod.nasa.gov\/apod\/fap\/ap260926.html\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">reflections on a starry night<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Explanation: Globular star cluster Omega Centauri packs about 10 million stars much older than the Sun into a&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":611304,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[271739,111,139,69,147,392],"class_list":["post-611303","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-space","tag-apod","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-science","tag-space"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/611303","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=611303"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/611303\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/611304"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=611303"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=611303"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=611303"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}