Object Analysis

47 Tucanae (NGC 104) is a globular cluster located in the constellation Tucana. It is about 13,000 to 15,000 light-years away from Earth and 120 light-years in diameter. It is the second-brightest globular cluster in the sky (after Omega Centauri), and is easily visible to the naked eye.

The cluster is incredibly dense, containing millions of stars in a volume only slightly larger than other clusters with a fraction of the population. Near the core, the stars are packed so tightly that frequent stellar collisions and interactions occur, creating exotic objects like X-ray binaries and "blue stragglers" (old stars that have stolen mass to look young again).

47 Tucanae contains at least 25 millisecond pulsars—neutron stars that spin hundreds of times per second. This is the second-largest population of pulsars in any known globular cluster, further evidence of the intense gravitational dynamics at its heart.