14 DAY TRIAL // Using the 3.58-meter New Technology Telescope (NTT) the European Southern Observatory (ESO) operates at La Silla, in Chile, experts were recently able to collect an amazing new view of the nearby, open star cluster NGC 2100.
Located about 160,000 light-years away from Earth, in the Large Magellanic Cloud, the structure is extremely bright. It features vast numbers of relatively new stars. According to past studies, the cluster itself is about 15 million years old, which is the blink of an eye in astronomical terms.
In addition to being remarkable all by itself, NGC 2100 also stands out due to the company it keeps. Very close nearby lie the famous Tarantula Nebula and the super star cluster RMC 136, which are both often-visited targets for observations.
Most of the glowing gas the NTT image reveals comes from the Tarantula Nebula, which is even now creating new, blue stars at a high rate. However, some of the gas that it would have otherwise used for this purpose is escaping into NGC 2100, astronomers say.
The Large Magellanic Cloud itself – home to the three space structures – is itself only a small dwarf galaxy that orbits the Milky Way together with a similar companion, the Small Magellanic Cloud.
Interestingly enough, the open star cluster has always had its limelight stolen by its brighter, and therefore more visible, neighbors. In fact, even in this image, the glowing portions that are not lit up by stars are illuminated by glowing gas from the Tarantula Nebula.
The red clouds represent glowing ionized hydrogen gas, as seen through some of NTT's many filters. Conversely, oxygen gas concentrations are shown in blue. All the stars visible in the image are displayed in their natural colors, without alterations.
Though the cluster is older than its neighbors, as well as many other structures in the LMC, it is still extremely young when comparing it to other clusters. Tighter-bound clusters, such as the globular variety, can grow to be billions of years old.
“NGC 2100 is an open cluster, which means its stars are relatively loosely bound by gravity. These clusters have a lifespan measured in tens or hundreds of millions of years, as they eventually disperse through gravitational interaction with other bodies,” an ESO press release explains.
“Globular clusters, which look similar to the untrained eye, contain many more older stars […] and so have far longer lifespans: many globular clusters have been measured to be almost as old as the Universe itself,” the statement concludes.