What would the sky look like if we were in the center of the galaxy?

If we found ourselves on a planet near the Galactic Center, our nighttime sky would light up in a blazing display every night, filled with stars as bright as the planet Venus looks to us. Dust becomes virtually transparent at these longer wavelengths, and the “smog” fades away to reveal the bright Galactic Center.

Could life exist in a globular cluster?

Traditionally, the outlook for life evolving in globular clusters has been poor. Elements heavier than helium – so called ‘metals’ – are produced inside stars and released into the cosmos when they die. These elements are vital for the formation of planets and for providing the raw materials for life.

Can you tell the difference between a star and a planet in the sky?

The easiest way to pick out planets is to remember this quick rule of thumb: stars twinkle and planets don’t. Seen with the naked eye, planets and stars both appear as pinpoints of light. When you observe a star, you’ll notice that it twinkles and the light may appear to change colors.

What would it look like in a globular cluster?

In a telescope, a globular cluster looks like a fuzzy ball, with individual stars at the periphery merging into a solid ball of light towards the center. However, this is simply because the stars are so close together that they can’t be resolved individually telescopically.

Is it possible to go outside of the Milky Way?

Our Galaxy, the Milky Way, is a disk of stars about 100,000 light-years across, and about 1,000 light-years thick. So, to leave our Galaxy, we would have to travel about 500 light-years vertically, or about 25,000 light-years away from the galactic centre.

Do star clusters have planets?

Astronomers have found two planets smaller than three times the size of Earth orbiting sun-like stars in a crowded stellar cluster approximately 3,000 light-years from Earth in the constellation Cygnus.

How many stars are in a cluster?

A classification based on central concentration and richness is used and has been extended to nearly 1,000 open clusters. Probably about half the known open clusters contain fewer than 100 stars, but the richest have 1,000 or more.

Do globular clusters have planets?

Because globular clusters are deficient in heavier elements, some astronomers have long believed that globular clusters cannot contain planets. Hubble revealed that the planet is in an unlikely place. It orbits two captured stars: a helium white dwarf and a rapidly spinning neutron star near the core of M4.

Where are the brightest stars in a globular cluster?

In a typical position in a globular cluster (maybe halfway between center and edge), there’d be many more bright stars in the sky due to the star density. These would be distributed unevenly in the sky, with more light coming from the center of the globular cluster.

What will the sky look like at the centre of the universe?

Now you don’t have to be a genius to see how the sky will look if the nearest stars to you are this far. It will be almost like our own sky but just a lot of stars in every direction. There will be no special hike in flux received. The number density is much higher at the centre.

What would happen if the Milky Way was in a globular cluster?

These would be distributed unevenly in the sky, with more light coming from the center of the globular cluster. Depending on the globular cluster’s orbit, we might be able to see the Milky Way face-on.

Are there planets in globular clusters?

Binary interactions become very important in simulating globular clusters, and interestingly enough (maybe unsurprisingly), the one example of a discovery of a planet found in a globular cluster has been around a binary star system (see: PSR B1620-26 b; this circumbinary planet was found orbiting a pulsar and a white dwarf.).