47 Tucanae

by Colin Robson

Title

47 Tucanae

Artist

Colin Robson

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Description

47 Tucanae, 47 Tuc, NGC 104, is a globular cluster located in the constellation Tucana. It is about 4.0 ± 0.35 kpc (13,000 ± 1,100 ly) away from Earth, and 120 light years across. 47 Tuc can be seen with the naked eye, with an apparent magnitude of 4.1. It appears about 50 arcminutes across. Due to its far southern location, 18° from the south celestial pole, it was not catalogued by European astronomers until the 1750s, when the cluster was first identified by Nicolas-Louis de Lacaille from South Africa.


47 Tucanae is the second brightest globular cluster after Omega Centauri and telescopically reveals about ten thousand stars, many appearing within a small dense central core. The cluster may contain an intermediate-mass black hole.

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September 23rd, 2020

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