Indian astronomers used the AstroSat spacecraft to explore a galactic globular cluster.
Globular clusters (GCs) are clusters of closelyconnected stars orbiting galaxies. Astronomers perceive them as natural laboratories that will allow them to study the evolution of stars and galaxies. In particular, globular clusters help researchers better understand the formation history and evolution of early-type galaxies, since the origin of GCs is closely related to periods of intense star formation.
At a distance of about 57,000 lightyears from Earth, NGC 5053 is one of the most metal-poor galactic GCs. Although NGC 5053 was discovered in 1784, and almost 150 years later it was confirmed as a globular cluster. This was mainly due to the high latitude of the cluster, the richness faint stars and the presence of variable stars.
Now to shed more light on the starrycomposition of NGC 5053, a group of astronomers from the Indian Institute of Space Science and Technology in Kerala tried to observe this cluster using an ultraviolet telescope on board AstroSat. The study was supplemented with data from the Gaia satellite.
The team cataloged 1,884 ultravioletstars NGC 5053 and carried out their photometry. By analyzing the proper motion of these stars using Gaia data, they were able to identify the members of this cluster.
NGC 5053 is different, according to studya large population of blue horizontal branch stars, which is typical of metal-poor GCs. In addition, the scientists discovered candidate stellar populations that had not been identified by previous observations, including 14 candidate blue stragglers and one extreme horizontal star branch.
In addition, the study found that NGC 5053 has a metallicity of -1.9 and is estimated to be about 12.5 billion years old.
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