名称：NGC1818球状星团 简介：球状星团曾经统治着银河系。回到从前，当我们银河系刚刚形成的时候，很可能有成千上万个球状星团漫游在我们银河系内。而到今天，它们才保留下来200个。经过数十亿年的时间之后，很多球状星团在相互间或者星系中心的致命碰撞下而毁灭。留下来的遗迹比地球上发现的化石还久远，比我们星系内任何其他结构都年老，并且将宇宙本身限定在一个最初的年龄段上。在我们银河系内很少出现年轻的球状星团，因为对于形成较多球状星团的环境并不具备。但在临近的大麦哲伦星系内，情况就不一样。上面影像中的年轻星系团被称为NGC1818。经过观测证实它形成于4,000万年前，相对于我们银河系内，年龄在120亿年之久的球状星团来说，它就像在昨天诞生一样。 : Globular clusters once ruled the Milky Way. Back in the old days, back when our Galaxy first formed, perhaps thousands of globular clusters roamed our Galaxy. Today, there are perhaps 200 left. Many globular clusters were destroyed over the eons by repeated fateful encounters with each other or the Galactic center. Surviving relics are older than any Earth fossil, older than any other structures in our Galaxy, and limit the universe itself in raw age. There are few, if any, young globular clusters in our Milky Way Galaxy because conditions are not ripe for more to form. Things are different next door, however, in the neighboring LMC galaxy. Pictured above is a "young" globular cluster residing there: NGC 1818. Observations show it formed only about 40 million years ago - just yesterday compared to the 12 billion year ages of globular clusters in our own Milky Way. (Credit: NASA) 总共 7张图片