                        Astronomy Picture of the Day

    Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our
      fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation
                    written by a professional astronomer.

                              2025 September 5

                      47 Tucanae: Globular Star Cluster
                   Image Credit & Copyright: Carlos Taylor

   Explanation: Also known as NGC 104, 47 Tucanae is a jewel of the
   southern sky. Not a star but a dense cluster of stars, it roams the
   halo of our Milky Way Galaxy along with some 200 other globular star
   clusters. The second brightest globular cluster (after Omega Centauri)
   as seen from planet Earth, 47 Tuc lies about 13,000 light-years away.
   It can be spotted with the naked eye close on the sky to the Small
   Magellanic Cloud in the constellation of the Toucan. The dense cluster
   is made up of hundreds of thousands of stars in a volume only about 120
   light-years across. Red giant stars on the outskirts of the cluster are
   easy to pick out as yellowish stars in this sharp telescopic portrait.
   Tightly packed globular star cluster 47 Tuc is also home to a star with
   the closest known orbit around a black hole.

                    Tomorrow's picture: sea and skyscape
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       Authors & editors: Robert Nemiroff (MTU) & Jerry Bonnell (UMCP)
            NASA Official: Amber Straughn Specific rights apply.
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