Hubble data used to look 10 000 years into the future

[EarthlingX]

hubblesite.org : Hubble Data Used to Look 10,000 Years into the Future

October 26, 2010: The globular star cluster Omega Centauri has caught the attention of sky watchers ever since the ancient astronomer Ptolemy first catalogued it 2,000 years ago. Ptolemy, however, thought Omega Centauri was a single star. He didn't know that the "star" was actually a beehive swarm of nearly 10 million stars, all orbiting a common center of gravity. The stars are so tightly crammed together that astronomers had to wait for the powerful vision of NASA's Hubble Space Telescope to peer deep into the core of the "beehive" and resolve individual stars. Hubble's vision is so sharp it can even measure the motion of many of these stars, and over a relatively short span of time.

Analyzing archived images taken over a four-year period by Hubble's Advanced Camera for Surveys, astronomers have made the most accurate measurements yet of the motions of more than 100,000 cluster inhabitants, the largest survey to date to study the movement of stars in any cluster. A precise measurement of star motions in giant clusters can yield insights into how stellar groupings formed in the early universe, and whether an "intermediate mass" black hole, one roughly 10,000 times as massive as our Sun, might be lurking among the stars.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4xf_cjXzNko[/youtube]

SpaceFellowship | October 26, 2010

Space Telescope Science Institute astronomers Jay Anderson and Roeland van der Marel discuss their in-depth study of the giant cluster Omega Centauri. The team used Hubble's exquisite resolving power to measure the positions for stars in 2002 and 2006. From these measurements, they can predict the stars' future movement.

 

[MeteorWayne]

Nice catch, EX, Thanx!