Arches Cluster
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Arches Cluster, as seen by the Hubble Telescope
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Arches Cluster (inset) at X-ray wavelengths, with
radio filaments
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A cluster of about 150 hot, young stars concentrated within a radius of
about one light-year, making it the most compact cluster of stars in our
Galaxy. It lies some 25,000 light-years away near the galactic center and
is named after a series of arch-shaped filaments, detected at radio wavelengths,
that lie in its vicinity. X-ray observations
by the Chandra X-ray Observatory have shown an envelope of 60-million-degree
gas around the cluster which is thought to be heated by intense stellar
winds from the member stars colliding with the surrounding medium. Studies
of the Arches Cluster can be used to learn more about the environments of
starburst galaxies in which this process occurs on a much larger scale.
Related category
• NEBULAE
AND STAR CLUSTERS
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