Astronomy Picture of the Day [1]Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation written by a professional astronomer. 2020 October 24 [2]See Explanation. Clicking on the picture will download the highest resolution version available. Globular Star Cluster 47 Tuc Image Credit & [3]Copyright: [4]Jose Mtanous Explanation: Globular star cluster 47 Tucanae is a jewel of the southern sky. Also [5]known as NGC 104, it roams the halo of our Milky Way Galaxy along with some 200 other [6]globular star clusters. The second brightest globular cluster (after [7]Omega Centauri) as seen from planet Earth, it lies about 13,000 light-years away and can be spotted naked-eye close on the sky to the [8]Small Magellanic Cloud in the constellation of [9]the Toucan. The dense cluster is made up of hundreds of thousands [10]of stars in a volume only about 120 light-years across. [11]Red giant stars on the outskirts of the cluster are easy to pick out as yellowish stars in this sharp telescopic portrait. Tightly packed globular cluster 47 Tuc is also home to a star with the closest known [12]orbit around a black hole. Tomorrow's picture: dark-weekend __________________________________________________________________ [13]< | [14]Archive | [15]Submissions | [16]Index | [17]Search | [18]Calendar | [19]RSS | [20]Education | [21]About APOD | [22]Discuss | [23]> __________________________________________________________________ Authors & editors: [24]Robert Nemiroff ([25]MTU) & [26]Jerry Bonnell ([27]UMCP) NASA Official: Phillip Newman [28]Specific rights apply. [29]NASA Web Privacy Policy and Important Notices A service of: [30]ASD at [31]NASA / [32]GSFC & [33]Michigan Tech. U. References 1. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/archivepix.html 2. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/2010/ngc104v1Mtanous.jpg 3. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/lib/about_apod.html#srapply 4. https://www.facebook.com/jmtanous 5. http://www.messier.seds.org/xtra/ngc/n0104.html 6. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Globular_cluster 7. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap200123.html 8. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap100903.html 9. http://www.hawastsoc.org/deepsky/tuc/ 10. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap080906.html 11. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap081218.html 12. https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/chandra/news/star-discovered-in-closest-known-orbit-around-likely-black-hole.html 13. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap201023.html 14. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/archivepix.html 15. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/lib/apsubmit2015.html 16. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/lib/aptree.html 17. https://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/cgi-bin/apod/apod_search 18. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/calendar/allyears.html 19. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod.rss 20. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/lib/edlinks.html 21. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/lib/about_apod.html 22. http://asterisk.apod.com/discuss_apod.php?date=201024 23. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap201025.html 24. http://www.phy.mtu.edu/faculty/Nemiroff.html 25. http://www.phy.mtu.edu/ 26. https://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/htmltest/jbonnell/www/bonnell.html 27. http://www.astro.umd.edu/ 28. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/lib/about_apod.html#srapply 29. https://www.nasa.gov/about/highlights/HP_Privacy.html 30. https://astrophysics.gsfc.nasa.gov/ 31. https://www.nasa.gov/ 32. https://www.nasa.gov/centers/goddard/ 33. http://www.mtu.edu/