astronomer used the Hubble Space Telescope to produce the first precise measurement of the distance to NGC 6397 , a collection of mavin that form shortly after the Big Bang . The object is located 7,800 light - years from Earth and the uncertainty on this idea has an erroneousness tolerance of about 3 per centum .
NGC 6397 is a 13.4 billion - years - old globular cluster . These group of stars are very important to our intellect of star . The stars in these clusters while all looking different , are at close to the same aloofness , have the same chemical substance make-up , and are the same long time . They are the ideal mental test for starring phylogeny models .
The results , published inThe Astrophysical Journal Letters , are a significant improvement on old globular bunch space estimate , which had doubt between 10 and 20 percent . The unexampled approximation was bring about using a new technique combined with a very old one .
The team used the so - prognosticate spatial scanning approaching . The Hubble telescope can provide hundreds of posture measurement for gobs of stars in the cluster . By ingeminate the mensuration every six months , the astronomers were able-bodied to measure tiny slant difference as the Earth ’s position changed in space . Based on the angle , by using trigonometric formulae experience since Hellenic time , they were able to put to work out the distance . This is the same approaching asparallax measurements . By meld measure from 40 stars they achieved the impressive estimation .
“ The globular bunch are so onetime that if their age and distances deduct from simulation are off by a little bit , they seem to be old than the age of the universe , ” lead generator Tom Brown of the Space Telescope Science Institute ( STScI ) in Baltimore , said in astatement .
This glide slope had been already examine on nearby superstar bunch but not on something like NGC 6397 .
“ Any model that match with the measurements gives you more faith in applying that modeling to more distant asterisk , ” Brown say . “ The nearby star cluster service as anchors for the stellar models . Until now , we only had accurate distances to the much younger receptive cluster inside our galaxy because they are skinny to Earth . ”
There are about 150 globular bunch that surround the much younger galax phonograph record of the Milky Way , where the voluted arms ( and us ) reside . By increasing precision , the research worker will produce more true model . And while this mensuration is a substantial footfall forward , the researchers are already project to tug it further by commingle this data withmeasurements from the European Space Agency ’s scope , Gaia . “ get to 1 per centum truth will boom this distance measurement forever , ” Brown said .
Gaia ’s new data expiration comes out at the last of the calendar month so this record might only last a short while . Watch this outer space .
