AAO image reference AAT 92. « Previous || Next »
Top left is NE. Image width is about 44 arc min
Image and text © 1992-2002, Anglo-Australian Observatory, photograph by David Malin.
Here we see clear evidence of the two 'populations' of stars identified fifty years ago by the German-American astronomer Walter Baade. The oldest stars, which are billions of years old, form the star clouds of Sagittarius in the southern Milky Way and are in orbit around the inner part of the Galaxy. They are cool and yellow and are the rich starry background here. In the spiral arms are clusters of young, mainly blue stars, often still associated with the dust from which they formed. In this photograph we see one such young cluster, NGC 6520, which is in the foreground at a distance of about 7000 light years. The dust with which it seems to be associated is hiding the light of the stars beyond.
Entry from NGC 2000.0 (R.W. Sinnott, Ed.) © Sky Publishing Corporation, 1988:
NGC 6520 OC 18 03.4 -27 54 s Sgr 68. p Cl, pS, Ri, lC, st 9...13Related Images
AAT 22. Dust cloud and the open cluster NGC 6520
AAT 28. Wide angle view towards the Galactic centre
UKS 20. Clouds of stars and dust in Sagittarius
For details of photographic exposure, search technical table by AAT reference number.