Globular cluster
Pal 3
Globular cluster
A globular cluster of hundreds of thousands of old stars orbiting in the Galaxy’s halo: among the oldest objects of the Milky Way, about 12 billion years old. Its metal abundance is 2.3 % of the Sun’s. Distance, brightness and structure come from the Harris catalogue.
| Type | Globular cluster |
|---|---|
| Constellation | Sextans |
| Distance | 92,500 pc (301.7 thousand ly) |
| Metallicity [Fe/H] | -1.63 |
| Half-light radius | 17.5 pc |
| Central concentration (c) | 0.99 |
| Radial velocity | 83.4 km/s |
| Source | Harris 1996 (2010) |
| Right ascension (J2000) | 10h 05m 31.9s |
| Declination (J2000) | +0° 04′ 18″ |
In the sky
Visible from the whole Southern Hemisphere and north to latitude 90° N. It stands highest at midnight in February, the best time to observe it.
Through a telescope from Earth
Light's journey
The light you see tonight set out 302 thousand years ago. At that time our ancestors were using stone tools; Homo sapiens did not exist yet. At the speed of Voyager 1, the fastest craft leaving the Solar System (16.9 km per second), the trip would take 5.4 billion years.