Fimbulthul is a tidal stellar stream torn off from Omega Centauri, the largest globular cluster of our Milky Way galaxy. The stream contains 309 known stars stretching over 18° in the constellations of Hydra and Centaurus, matching the same age as the globular cluster. Omega Centauri is thought to be the nucleus of a dwarf galaxy that merged with the Milky Way.[1]
The stream was discovered in the Gaia DR2 star database that determined the direction, distances and motion of over one billion stars.[2]
The name Fimbulthul is a river in Norse mythology.
See also
editReferences
edit- ^ Noyola, Eva; Gebhardt, Karl; Bergmann, Marcel (2008). "Gemini and Hubble Space Telescope Evidence for an Intermediate Mass Black Hole in omega Centauri". The Astrophysical Journal. 676 (2): 1008. arXiv:0801.2782. Bibcode:2008ApJ...676.1008N. doi:10.1086/529002. S2CID 208867075.
- ^ Catastrophic tale of the most massive globular cluster of the Milky Way Khyati Malhan, Apr 23, 2019
- Identification of the long stellar stream of the prototypical massive globular cluster ω Centauri Nature Astronomy (2019)
- Preprint at arxiv.org Rodrigo Ibata, Michele Bellazzini, Khyati Malhan, Nicolas Martin, Paolo Bianchini, 2019
- The Streams of the Gaping Abyss: A population of entangled stellar streams surrounding the Inner Galaxy Rodrigo Ibata, Khyati Malhan, Nicolas Martin, 2019
External links
edit- Gaia: The sky is littered with undigested galaxies
- Omega Centauri's lost stars
- Omega Centauri’s lost stars
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