Laevens 3 Explained

Laevens 3
Epoch:J2000
Constellation:Delphinus
Absmag V:-2.8
Radius Arcminsec:effective

0.64 ± 0.05

Metal Fe:−1.8 ± 0.1

Laevens 3 is a globular cluster in the constellation of Delphinus. It belongs to the Milky Way but orbits far from the centre. The cluster is named after Benjamin P. M. Laevens, the discoverer. It was first observed in 2015 using Pan-STARRS 1.[1]

It is located 210,000 light years from Earth in the outer galactic halo. Its orbit takes it to 133,000 ly from galactic centre and out to 279,000 ly. The half light diameter is only 37 light years. The metallicity is -1.8 dex. The cluster is about 13 billion years old. The brightness is equivalent to 1,125 Suns.[2]

Notes and References

  1. Longeard . Nicolas . Martin . Nicolas . Ibata . Rodrigo A . Collins . Michelle L M . Laevens . Benjamin P M . Bell . Eric . Mackey . Dougal . Detailed study of the Milky Way globular cluster Laevens 3 . Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society . December 2019 . 490 . 2 . 1498–1508 . 10.1093/mnras/stz2592. free . 1909.08622.
  2. Web site: Nowakowski . Tomasz . Milky Way's satellite globular cluster studied in detail . phys.org . 16 October 2019 . en-us . 26 September 2019.