Galaxies


Milky Way
Globular
Clusters

Index


1. Introduction
2. Orbits
3. Omega Centauri
4. 47 Tucanae
5. 47 Tuc Core
6. 47 Tuc Blue Stragglers
7. M4
8. M5
9. M10
10. M13
11. M15
12. M22
13. NGC 6522
14. Galactic Centre Chart
15. List of MW Globulars
16. Credits and Links
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Globular Cluster Orbits

The Milky Way galaxy has 157 known globular clusters. They take several hundred million years to orbit the centre of the galaxy along elongated ellipses.

In 1914, Harlow Shapley began a series of globular cluster studies, published in about 40 scientific papers. He examined cepheid variables in the clusters and used the period–luminosity relationship to establish their distances. He used Doppler shift to establish their velocities. He characterised their orbits, located the centre of the Milky Way and established its approximate size.

Source: Globular Cluster - Wikipedia