Arches Cluster

The Arches Cluster is the densest known star cluster in the Milky Way located about 100 light-years from its center, in the constellation Sagittarius (The Archer), 25,000 light-years from Earth.The discovery of this cluster was reported by Nagata et al. in 1995, and independently by Cotera et al. in 1996.Due to extremely heavy optical extinction by dust in this region, the Arches Cluster is obscured in the visual bands, and is observed in the X-ray, infrared, and radio bands. It contains approximately 135 young, very hot stars that are many times larger and more massive than the Sun, plus many thousands of less massive stars.

Arches Cluster

The Arches Cluster is the densest known star cluster in the Milky Way located about 100 light-years from its center, in the constellation Sagittarius (The Archer), 25,000 light-years from Earth.The discovery of this cluster was reported by Nagata et al. in 1995, and independently by Cotera et al. in 1996.Due to extremely heavy optical extinction by dust in this region, the Arches Cluster is obscured in the visual bands, and is observed in the X-ray, infrared, and radio bands. It contains approximately 135 young, very hot stars that are many times larger and more massive than the Sun, plus many thousands of less massive stars.