The Advanced Camera for Surveys on board NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope has captured a beautiful image of a globular star cluster called Palomar 12.
This image shows the globular star cluster Palomar 12. Image credit: ESA / Hubble / NASA.
Palomar 12 lies in the constellation Capricornus, about 62,000 light-years away.
Although it currently lies on the outskirts of the Milky Way’s halo, Palomar 12 was not born here.
When astronomers first studied this object, they were puzzled by its strangely young age when compared to the other clusters in the galaxy.
It appeared to be approximately 30 percent younger than other Milky Way globular clusters.
Surely if it had been born within our galaxy, it would have sprung to life at a similar time to its cluster companions?
Another study revealed that Palomar 12 was actually ripped from its initial home, the Sagittarius Dwarf Elliptical galaxy, around 1.7 billion years ago via tidal interactions between its former home and our galaxy.
The dwarf galaxy that Palomar 12 once called home is a satellite galaxy located about 70,000 light-years away, and closely orbits around us – even occasionally passing through the plane of our galaxy.
In fact, it is being slowly torn apart and consumed by the Milky Way.
