NGC 2419 - Intergalactic
Wanderer
From NASA’s AstronomyPicture of the Day
Three objects stand out
in this thoughtful telescopic image, a view toward
the mostly stealthy constellation Lynx.
The two brightest (the
spiky ones) are nearby stars. The third is the remote globular star cluster NGC
2419, at distance of nearly 300,000 light-years.
NGC 2419 is
sometimes called "the Intergalactic Wanderer", an appropriate title
considering that the distance to the Milky Way's satellite galaxy, the Large
Magellanic Cloud, is only about 160,000 light-years.
Roughly similar to other
large globular star clusters like Omega
Centauri, NGC 2419 is itself intrinsically bright, but appears faint
because it is so far away.
NGC 2419 may
really have an extragalactic origin as, for example, the remains of a small
galaxy captured and disrupted by the Milky Way. But
its extreme distance makes it difficult to study and
compare its properties with other globular clusters that roam the halo of our Milky Way galaxy.
