Globular+Clusters

Defined as a spherical collection of starts that orbits a galactic core bound by gravity giving it its shape. There are up to 158 known globular clusters in the milky way and are presumed to contain some of the first stars to be produced in the galaxy.
 * Fall 2011 Editor, Joshua Holmes **
 * Globular Clusters:**

[] This site gives you a brief explanation of what a globular cluster is and shows you different pictures of some. It then gives you a list of most of the globular clusters in our galaxy with information such as coordinates, visual magnitude, angular diameter, and distance. At the bottom of the site is a plot revealing how globular clusters form a spherical halo around the Galaxy. The site seems very credible, easy to read, and easy to navigate. Written by Richard Powell and last updated July 2006.

[] At this site you will find detailed information on globular clusters. It will talk about the what globular clusters are and its structure, some of the classical studies discovering the information we now know today, that most globular clusters are in extreme population II or the halo class and their evolution, and finally the outer galactic halo. The site provides good information, while making it clear and easy to read, it was written in 1999 by Kyle M. Cudworth.

[] A guide to globular clusters. This site provides great information for those who want to understand more about globular clusters.It will talk about what they are, what they look like, general information, where they are locates, how they hold themselves together, and then give you an analysis of certain clusters. This site is great for the average person wanting to learn more, it is easy to read and give definitions of words you may not be familiar with. It explores a lot of different things and is easy to follow. Written by John Talpur in 1997.

[] This site give you information on both open clusters and globular clusters, while informing you that they are different and explaining how. This is a small site that is easy to read, containing some good information on differences between globular clusters and open clusters. Written in January 2006 by Stuart Robbins.

[] This site will give you great recent information on a discovery that could change some of the facts scientist believed. "Unexpected populations in global clusters may unlock secrets of star formation" This site provides a nice page of information that is easy to read and written by Allison Sills, from the Department of Physics and Astronomy at Mcmaster Univeristy, May 2011.


 * Fall 2010 Editor, Bryan Woods **

http://www.seds.org/messier/glob.html Last Modified: December 3, 2010 This site tells you about globular clusters, which were the earliest discovered, and who discovered them. A globular cluster is a bunch of accumulated stars, approximately ten thousand to a million stars spread over a volume of about 200lys in diameter. The first globular cluster to be discovered was M22, by Abraham Ihle in 1665. Cluster M22 lies in constellation Sagittarius. It was actually mistaken for a nebula when discovered. The earlier known clusters belong to our Milky Way Galaxy, but some of them have interspersed into the Galactic Globular Cluster System including M54 and M79.

http://www.maa.clell.de/Messier/cluster.html This is a small, brief site that talks about Globular and open clusters. It states how globular and open clusters take up as much space in the milky way and other galaxies as star forming nebulae. It also gives a brief summary of Binary and Multiple Star Systems.

http://csep10.phys.utk.edu/astr162/lect/clusters/globular.html This site gives you some basic information on Globular Clusters, how some of them are Messier Objects, and how they got named after Charles Messier. It lets you view Messier objects and see them at a particular latitude and longitude at specific times. It also gives you a Schematic picture of our galaxy showing the halo with our Globular Clusters, and it explains the picture. Though this site isn't very big, it is still a good site that provides decent info.

http://www.nightskyinfo.com/globular_clusters/ Globular Clusters contain suns at least 12 billion years old. Their compacted stars make them very astonishing when seen through the telescope, and easy to observe even from light-polluted areas. Summer time is the best time to search for globular clusters because almost one third of them are visible in the summer constellation of Sagittarius. http://images.astronet.ru/pubd/2007/11/15/0001224517/M13_DSS_Noel_c800.jpg This link shows you a picture of globular cluster M13 a.k.a. "The king of the northern sky."

http://www.astrosociety.org/pubs/mercury/9904/murphy.html Observations show that roughly twenty percent of all globular clusters in our galaxy have encountered core unclasped. The revealing signature of this collapse is when a cluster's surface brightness rises continually from the cluster's outer space all the way to its very center. With uncollapsed clusters, the surface brightness increases until about 3 to 5lys from the center and then remains constant. Basically, the higher density of stars in collapsed core globular clusters means they will have brighter centers than normal clusters.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZVKt0Wjgzxo This is a very good brief video of Globular Clusters, and it has you take a look from inside one of NASA's telescope.