Globular cluster VVV CL002 is falling down to the galactic center, study finds

Utilizing the Magellan Clay telescope in Chile, astronomers have carried out high-resolution spectroscopic observations of a galactic globular cluster often called VVV CL002. They discovered that the cluster is falling right down to the Milky Way’s middle. The invention was reported in a analysis paper published December 26 on the pre-print server arXiv.

Globular clusters (GCs) are collections of tightly sure stars orbiting galaxies. Astronomers understand them as pure laboratories enabling research on the evolution of stars and galaxies. Specifically, globular clusters might assist researchers to raised perceive the formation historical past and evolution of early-type galaxies, because the origin of GCs appears to be intently linked to durations of intense star formation.

Situated some 23,800 gentle years away, VVV CL002 is a comparatively low-luminosity GC found in 2011 with the VISTA Variables within the By way of Lactea (VVV) survey. With a galactocentric distance of roughly 1,300 gentle years, VVV CL002 is assumed to be closest GC to the middle of the Milky Way.

Not too long ago, a workforce of astronomers led by Dante Minniti of the Andrés Bello Catholic College in Santiago, Chile, determined to conduct near-infrared high-resolution spectroscopy of VVV CL002 to be able to learn how the cluster is surviving so near the galactic center with out being tidally disrupted. For this function, they employed the Heat INfrared Echelle spectrograph to Notice Excessive Dispersion and sensitivity (WINERED) on the Magellan Clay telescope.

The observations discovered that VVV CL002 has a retrograde orbital configuration of comparatively excessive eccentricity of 0.69, with perigalactocentric and apogalactocentric distances of 619 and three,400 light years, respectively, effectively contained in the bulge. It turned out that the orbit of VVV CL002 is tighter than the orbits of all different recognized GCs.

The research delivered essential insights into the chemical composition of VVV CL002. It was discovered that the cluster has a metallicity at a stage of -0.54 and showcases excessive alpha-element abundance. This means that VVV CL002 is an outdated GC that fashioned along with different clusters.

Due to this fact, in keeping with the authors of the paper, VVV CL002 was fashioned outdoors the central area of the Milky Way however is now falling right down to the galactic middle.

“This brings us to a state of affairs the place VVV CL002 was fashioned at a comparatively massive stellar beginning radius and began to fall in the direction of the middle just lately. It’s most likely doomed to proceed spiraling into the inside parsecs and be destroyed within the not-so-distant future,” the researchers defined.

The astronomers underlined that additional high-resolution observations of VVV CL002 could possibly be important to be able to higher perceive the survival and migration mechanisms of galactic globular clusters.

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