March 12, 2006
The universe is under no obligation to make sense to us, and yet here you are — a collection of atoms that somehow learned to think, to...
Globular Cluster M3 from WIYN
Birthday · March 12, 2006
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APOD published March 12, 2006. Credit: S. Kafka. A publication-date match, not a photo taken on your date. Independent of NASA.
This huge ball of stars predates our Sun. Long before humankind evolved, before dinosaurs roamed, and even before our Earth existed, ancient globs of stars condensed and orbited a young Milky Way Galaxy. Of the 200 or so globular clusters that survive today, M3 is one of the largest and brightest, easily visible in the Northern hemisphere with binoculars. M3 contains about half a million stars, most of which are old and red. Light takes about 35,000 years to reach us from M3, which spans about 150 light years. The above picture is a composite of blue and red images.
Image credit: S. Kafka