Copyright: Fred Lehman (South Florida Dark Sky Observers, sfdso.org)

Where was this picture yesterday?? Millions of stars… it’s perfect. Go read this and then come back and oggle today’s post.

Featured in the sharp telescopic image, globular star cluster Omega Centauri (NGC 5139) is some 15,000 light-years away and 150 light-years in diameter. Packed with about 10 million stars much older than the Sun, Omega Cen is the largest of 200 or so known globular clusters that roam the halo of our Milky Way galaxy. Though most star clusters consist of stars with the same age and composition, the enigmatic Omega Cen exhibits the presence of different stellar populations with a spread of ages and chemical abundances. In fact, Omega Cen may be the remnant core of a small galaxy merging with the Milky Way.

Ten million stars. No, really. Look. Here’s a small portion of the full-size image: