Top Document: [sci.astro] Galaxies (Astronomy Frequently Asked Questions) (8/9) Previous Document: H.01.3 How many globular clusters in the Milky Way? Next Document: H.02 Is there dark matter in the Universe? See reader questions & answers on this topic! - Help others by sharing your knowledge Here we must extrapolate again, since open clusters can be difficult to find against rich star fields in the plane of the Milky Way, and since richer clusters may be identified farther away than poor ones. The electronic version of the catalogue of open cluster data compiled by Gosta Lynga, Lund Observatory, Box 43, S-221 00 Lund, Sweden, 1987 version, lists 1111 identified open clusters in our galaxy. There are certainly at least ten times this number, since we have trouble seeing even rich open clusters more than about 7000 light-years away in most directions through the obscuring dust in the plane of our Galaxy. This effect is especially acute since young star clusters are strongly concentrated to this plane (no coincidence since the gas from which new clusters are formed is associated with dust). User Contributions:Top Document: [sci.astro] Galaxies (Astronomy Frequently Asked Questions) (8/9) Previous Document: H.01.3 How many globular clusters in the Milky Way? Next Document: H.02 Is there dark matter in the Universe? Part0 - Part1 - Part2 - Part3 - Part4 - Part5 - Part6 - Part7 - Part8 - Single Page [ Usenet FAQs | Web FAQs | Documents | RFC Index ] Send corrections/additions to the FAQ Maintainer: jlazio@patriot.net
Last Update March 27 2014 @ 02:11 PM
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