An international group of astronomers using the MPG/ESO 2.2-m telescope at ESO’s La Silla Observatory in Chile has captured a new image of NGC 3590.
This image shows the open star cluster NGC 3590. Image credit: ESO / G. Beccari.
NGC 3590, also known as OCL 852 or ESO 129-SC14, is a small open star cluster located in the constellation of Carina, about 7,500 light-years from our Solar System.
The cluster is very young – about 35 million years old, and consists of few dozens of stars loosely bound together by gravity.
NGC 3590 is not just pretty – it is very useful to astronomers. By studying it they can explore the properties of the spiral disc of our galaxy. The cluster is located in the largest single segment of a spiral arm that can be seen from our position in the galaxy: the Carina spiral feature.
The Milky Way has multiple spiral arms, long curved streams of gas and stars stretching out from the center of the galaxy.
These arms, two major star-filled arms and two less populated minor arms, are each named after the constellations in which they are most prominent.
The Carina spiral feature is seen from Earth as a patch of sky heavily populated with stars, in the Carina-Sagittarius minor arm.
These spiral arms are actually waves of piled up gas and stars sweeping through the galactic disc, triggering sparkling bursts of star formation and leaving clusters like NGC 3590 in their wake.
By finding and observing young stars like those in NGC 3590, it is possible to determine the distances to the different parts of this spiral arm, telling us more about its structure.
