The globular clusters form a, more or less, spherical system of satellites around the galactic nucleus. If we could speed up our time process, we would find that these objects circle the nucleus of our galaxy, in their very inclined orbits, at high speeds, very much like diagrams of the atomic nucleus surrounded by orbiting electrpns.The anticenter of the galaxy is almost devoid of globulars and most occu between our Sun and the center of the galaxy (GC).

With the exception of the very much more diffuse stellar associations (to be mentioned later), the globular clusters are the most massive and vast star clusters known (the Associations are vast but not massive). A globular cluster may contain hundreds of thousands of stars packed into a spherical region of space some 100 parsecs in diameter. Globulars, therefore, are very bright and can be observed at relatively greater distances than any other form of star cluster. The largest are visible to the naked eye as fuzzy patches and the two brightest are Omega Centauri and 47 Tucanae. Messier Object 13 (M.13) in Hercules is very well known.

Globular clusters are also very old and are essentially permanent members of the galactic system. They are the eternal guardians of the galactic nucleus. The large number of stars in these clusters and their density or compactness create a self-gravitating system that is very effective against the disruptive tidal forces in the galaxy. There is a distinct absence of blue giants and supergiant stars (superluminous stars of short lifetimes) in the globular clusters. This along with the absence of dust and gas clouds points to their great age. The globular clusters seem to move, more or less, at random about the galactic center, very much like individual stars in a cluster seem to have mainly incoherent motions about the center of the cluster. Some astronomers claim that the globulars make radial oscillations (in and out) rather than spherical orbits.

Copyright (c) 1997-99 Michael Erlewine